backlight

English

Etymology

From back +‎ light.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbæk.laɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

backlight (plural backlights)

1. (uncountable) Light shining from a source behind the object of interest or attention.

   The backlight from the sunset cast the pier and the crowd in silhouette.

   Egg candling uses backlight to look for chick embryos.

   1. (countable) A spotlight that illuminates a photographic subject from behind.
   2. (uncountable) Light that is behind a photographic subject.
      • 2006, Michael Grecco, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Amphoto Books, →ISBN, page 73:

        If I do use backlight, it's not to separate the subject from the background; I use it to set a psychological mood, or to create a look.

   3. (countable) A light attached to an LCD display.
2. (countable) The rear window of a motor car.

Translations

spotlight that illuminates a photographic subject from behind

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: tegenlicht (nl) n
• Finnish: taustavalo
• French: contrejour (fr) m
• Hungarian: ellenfény (hu)
• Spanish: contraluz f

light attached to an LCD display

• Catalan: retroil·luminació f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: backlight m
• Esperanto: fonlumo
• Finnish: taustavalo
• French: rétroéclairage (fr) m
• Italian: retroilluminazione (it) f
• Portuguese: retroiluminação f
• Spanish: retroiluminación f

rear window of a motor car

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: achterruit (nl) m or f
• Finnish: takaikkuna
• French: lunette arrière (fr) f
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

Verb

backlight (third-person singular simple present backlights, present participle backlighting, simple past and past participle backlighted or backlit)

1. (transitive) To illuminate something from behind.
   • 2007 June 2, James R. Oestreich, “Strange, Faraway Fantasies of Hell and Paradise”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     It offers few subtleties, but those can be effective, as when the chorus is backlighted in the rear of the auditorium to produce an ominous play of shadows onstage.

   • 2023 March 22, “Modern Images”, in RAIL, page 61, photo caption:

     Backlit by the setting sun, an Avanti West Coast Class 390 Pendolino crosses the River Ribble at Preston on December 30 2022.

Translations

illuminate something from behind

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: taustavalaista
• French: éclairer par derrière, rétro-éclairer (fr)
• Italian: illuminare dal di dietro
• Spanish: retroiluminar (es)