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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

posterize.

To inadvertently or intentionally reduce the number of colours in (a photograph or other image), changing a continuous gradation of tone to several regions of fewer tones with abrupt changes from one tone to another.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈpəʊstəɹaɪz/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpoʊstəˌɹaɪz/General-American
  1. To inadvertently or intentionally reduce the number of colours in (a photograph or other image), changing a continuous gradation of tone to several regions of fewer tones with abrupt changes from one tone to another.

    transitive
  2. To score a slam dunk in basketball against (one or more opposing players) by leaping over them; also (by extension, sports, slang), to score a goal, a point, etc., in some other sport against (one or more opposing players) in a spectacular manner.

    Canada · US · slang · transitive
  3. To inadvertently or intentionally reduce the number of colours in a photograph or other image, changing a continuous gradation of tone to several regions of fewer tones with abrupt changes from one tone to another.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From poster + -ize (suffix forming verbs denoting something which is done or made). Sense 1.1 (“to reduce the number of colours”) refers to the original use of the process to produce posters. Sense 1.2 (“to score a slam dunk in basketball against (one or more opposing players) by leaping over them”) refers to the action being so spectacular as to warrant a photograph of it being printed on a poster.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.