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Glite Dictionary
🟦 Blocky image 🙈 Censoring image
pixelation

pixelation

5.1
A way of hiding part of a picture by showing it as large square pixels
  • noun
  • /ˌpɪk.səˈleɪ.ʃən/
translation icon : pixelación
  • In order to protect her identity, the video featured pixelation over her eyes and mouth.

Examples

  • Pixelation blurs the contours of his face, leaving only the intense eyes clear.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • I know the public will have had the impression that these were covert photos with their sinister pixelations that have been obtained by the media.

  • I'm looking at this and I see the slightest bit of pixelation on the bank.

  • The movie used pixelation to censor the faces of people in the crowd.

  • Many social media platforms apply pixelation to explicit content to minimize inappropriate exposure.

Synonyms

obscuration
vspixelation
1 8.2

Something that stops you from seeing or understanding

is a specific visual censoring method using large visible pixels

How Obscured

redaction
  • Formal
8 8.5
pixelation
5.1
to blur
20 3.7
visibility
46 3.4

Surface Forms

pixelation singular
pixelations plural

Morphology

pixelation = pixelate (transparent) = pixel + ate + ion

Derived from 'pixelate' (pixel + -ate) with the noun-forming '-ion'; the formation and meaning (obscuring by pixels) follow regular English derivation.

Etymology

The word pixelation comes from pixel ('picture element') and it also means the act of turning parts of an image into large squares to hide details. So when TV or news uses pixelation, they make faces or logos into big 'picture elements' so people or things cannot be recognized.