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Glite Dictionary
microdot

microdot

1 9.5
A very small photo used to hide secret information
  • noun
  • /ˈmaɪkroʊˌdɑt/
  • Archaic
translation icon : micropunto
  • In secret operations, agents often relied on a microdot to conceal vital documents.

Examples

  • During the Cold War, spies used a microdot to secretly transmit messages hidden in plain sight.

  • My men found a microdot on the paper.

    You Only Live Twice (1967)

  • Just let me find out... what the microdot is worth to Moscow.

    S*P*Y*S (1974)

  • Now what was on the microdots, huh?

    S*P*Y*S (1974)

  • In the '60s and '70s, the KGB could hide a microdot in headache powder, vodka, or the cellophane on a pack of cigarettes.

    Academic text (2003)

  • They taught the thirty-year-old Chilean secret writing and basic codes, miniature photography, and the reduction of photographs to microdots.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The detective discovered a microdot containing crucial information about the case.

Synonyms

microphotograph
vsmicrodot
  • Archaic
8.4

A tiny photograph made by shrinking an image to fit on film

is a tiny dot-sized image used to hide or send secret information

How Small

microdot
  • Archaic
1 9.5
photograph
860 1.4

Surface Forms

microdot singular
microdots plural

Morphology

microdot = dot (transparent) = micro + dot

The word is a straightforward prefixation of 'micro-' meaning 'very small' plus 'dot', and the size-based meaning is easy to infer.

Etymology

The word microdot joins the prefix micro- meaning 'small' with the everyday word dot. So a microdot is literally a tiny dot, often a very small photograph made to hide or send secret information.