noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The use of many small areas of color to construct an image. uncountable, usually
2. 2
   a genre of painting characterized by the application of paint in dots and small strokes; developed by Georges Seurat and his followers in late 19th century France wordnet
3. 3
   a school of painters who used a technique of painting with tiny dots of pure colors that would blend in the viewer's eye; developed by Georges Seurat and his followers late in 19th century France wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

artblotchdappledotfrecklemottle

Example

More examples

"Pointillism is a time-consuming art style."

Etymology

From French pointillisme, from pointiller (“to dot, to mark with points”), from point (“dot, point”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.