Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of an image projected by a camera lens

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Japanese 暈け (boke, "blur"), the nominalized form of the verb 暈ける (bokeru, "to blur").

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Examples

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  • The areas in a photograph that are out of focus. Reportedly a borrowing from a Japanese word "??" 'blur'. I can only guess that the spelling with h is to avoid the /bo?k/ pronuncation.

    "I'll go against the grain, at the risk of getting flamed, and say that the bokeh is nice from this lens, but far from 'the best ever'." -- Canonosaurus Rex on Flickr

    June 28, 2009

  • “Fujifilm says its $280 FinePix F70EXR and $600 FinePix S200EXR use its advanced EXR sensor and multiframe technology to enable users to simulate the wide-aperture background blurs (or bokeh) of D.S.L.R. cameras.�?

    The New York Times, Fujifilm Adds EXR Sensor to Super-Zooms, by Rik Fairlie, July 22, 2009

    July 24, 2009