GIF

Pluralgifs, GIFs, Gifs

Formsgifs, gifing, gifed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   Any short video clip without sound, usually one that loops, even when the file is not actually in GIF format.

   Most of the reaction GIFs in the comment thread were clips from old sitcoms.

   The site quietly saves every GIF as a small MP4 file so it loads faster.

   Note

   Here the name describes what a clip does, not how it is stored: a short, silent loop counts as a GIF even when the file is an MP4 or a WebM video. In Vox in 2021 the TV critic Sarah D. Bunting put Crying Dawson "on the Mount Rushmore of GIFs." Where the file type matters, GIF still means the image format itself.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A bitmap image in a particular file format that supports multiple images or an animation in one file and up to 256 distinct colors per frame, including a fully transparent color.

   The designer exported the logo as a GIF with a transparent background.

   Early web pages were full of GIFs because the format kept image files small enough for slow connections.

   Note

   The name is an acronym of graphics interchange format, which is why it is written in capitals. Its palette of at most 256 colors per frame suits logos, icons and line drawings, while photographs lose their subtle shading. Because one file can hold a sequence of frames, the format became a home for short animations, the root of the looser "looping clip" meaning.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To create a GIF file of something, or, more loosely, a similar animated image file of it.

   Fans GIF every dramatic pause in the finale within minutes of it airing.

   The team's social media editor GIFed the winning shot and posted it before the crowd stopped cheering.

   Note

   As a verb the acronym keeps its capitals and takes plain endings: GIFs, GIFing, GIFed, with a single F. The -ing form also turns up hyphenated; Caitlin Dewey wrote in 2013 of "the GIF-ing" of a retouched Jennifer Lawrence cover. It takes a direct object (you GIF a highlight, a scene or a reaction) and loosely covers any similar animated file, not only a true GIF.

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