resolution
Pluralresolutions
- 1A formal expression of opinion, intention, or decision adopted by an assembly or another formal meeting.
The United Nations adopted a resolution calling for a ceasefire.
Several resolutions were debated before the assembly broke for lunch.
UsageAssemblies pass, adopt or vote on a resolution, often one on or calling for something.
Similarmotion, declaration, proposal
Note
The document an assembly adopts, as distinct from the decision itself. Resolutions are debated and passed, by a vote that sometimes needs a set majority such as two-thirds, or by consensus without a vote. Once passed, the written text speaks for the whole body.
- 2The amount of detail an image, screen, or printer can show, usually measured in pixels or dots per inch.
Printers need a high resolution to reproduce fine detail in photographs.
Designers exported the image at several resolutions for different devices.
UsageUsually high or low: a high-resolution photo, an image saved at a lower resolution.
Note
Imaging measures fineness by density: so many pixels packed into each inch of a print or screen. Screens are often described instead by their pixel dimensions, such as 1920 by 1080, and one image file can be printed at many densities. Higher can show finer detail but is not free. Printing at higher resolution slows the job, so choosing a resolution usually means trading detail against speed.
- 3A firm decision to do or not do something, whether a promise made to oneself or a decision reached officially, as by a board.
After the accident, she came to a firm resolution never to drive at night.
The directors reached a resolution to reject the takeover bid after hours of debate.
UsageUsually a resolution to + verb; people make or come to a resolution, as in a New Year's resolution.
- 4The act or process of solving something or working it out to a settled outcome.
The resolution of the billing dispute took three months and several long calls with the company.
Both sides hoped for a quick resolution of the dispute over unpaid wages.
UsageUsually the resolution of a problem or dispute; the two sides reach or seek a resolution.
Similarsolution
Note
Here the word shows its roots. Latin resolūtiō meant "a loosening" and comes from resolvō, built on solvō, "to loosen," the same verb behind solution, its synonym in this sense. Mathematics keeps the picture of untying: the resolution of an equation works it loose into an answer. In everyday use the word most often names the settling of a problem or a dispute.
- 5The ability of an instrument, such as a telescope, microscope, or spectrometer, to distinguish fine detail or closely spaced features.
The telescope's resolution was high enough to separate the double star.
Improved optics increased the resolution of the imaging system.
UsageAn instrument has high or good resolution; scientists often name the kind: spatial, angular or spectral resolution.
Note
Fenella Saunders, writing in American Scientist in 2013, credits the mammalian eye with high spatial resolution. There, spatial marks detail spread across a field of view. The verb works the same way: an eye or lens that has good resolution resolves an image, telling apart features that a poorer one would blur together.
- 6The moment in a narrative when the conflict ends and the outcome of the action becomes clear.
The film's resolution ties up every loose thread in the final scene.
A satisfying resolution rewards the reader for following the conflict.
UsageOften called satisfying or unsatisfying; a story can reach its climax and still lack resolution.
Similardenouement, conclusion, ending, outcome, finale
Note
Storytelling's last beat comes after the climax has decided things and before the story closes. Dénouement is its near-synonym, and resolution is the plainer term in discussions of plot structure. A story can reach its climax and still lack resolution, which is why the word is so often paired with satisfying or unsatisfying.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- In conventional plot structure, resolution follows the climax and belongs to the story's closing stages. cbse.gov.in
- Dénouement is a near-synonym of narrative resolution. en.wiktionary.org
- A narrative can have a climax without a resolution. asset.library.wisc.edu
Less common meanings
- 7Firmness of purpose; the quality of being determined and resolute.
He pursued his goal with unwavering resolution.
Her resolution never weakened, even when others gave up.
UsageUsually with resolution: faced it with great resolution. Resolve means the same and is often used instead.
Similardetermination, resolve, tenacity, steadfastness
Oppositeindecision, irresolution, hesitancy, vacillation
- 8In music, the progression from a dissonant sound to a consonant one, or the chord that completes that progression.
The suspended note finds its resolution on the tonic chord.
A delayed resolution keeps the audience in suspense until the final bar.
Note
Harmony uses the word for release. A dissonance creates tension, and resolution is the step that lets it go. One word names both the motion and the sound it lands on, so a suspended note resolves down a step to a note of the chord, and that arrival is the resolution. The verb takes to, and composers often delay the arrival to hold a listener's attention.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Musical resolution relieves dissonance through consonance. en.wikisource.org
- Resolution names both the progression and its destination chord. en.wiktionary.org
- A suspended note normally resolves down by step to a chord tone, which need not be the tonic. The resulting chord can be called the resolution. musictheory.pugetsound.edu
- Composers often delay resolution to sustain listeners' interest. etheses.whiterose.ac.uk
- 9The process of determining what a symbol or address refers to, and of carrying out the link to it.
DNS resolution converts a hostname into its corresponding IP address.
The linker performs symbol resolution before producing the final executable.
UsageUsually after another noun: name resolution, DNS resolution, symbol resolution.
Similarlookup
Note
Lookup is a plainer word for one part of the same job. The verb comes along with the noun. A hostname resolves to an address, and a reference that will not resolve could not be linked to a usable target.
- 10The separation of something into its constituent parts, as with a spectrum.
The instrument achieves a clean resolution of the spectrum into discrete lines.
Resolution of the racemic compound yielded its two separate forms.
Similarseparation, breakdown, decomposition, dispersion
Note
The Latin "loosening" at its most literal: a whole taken apart, such as light into its wavelengths, a mixture into its fractions, or a racemic compound into its two forms. The word names the act of separating, while how finely it can be done is an instrument's resolving power. It shares its picture with the "solving" sense: something bound together is worked loose.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Resolution derives from Latin resolutio, meaning a loosening, through resolvo, to loosen. en.wiktionary.org
- Light can be separated into its constituent wavelengths. dcc.ligo.org
- A mixture can be separated into fractions. rsu.lv
- Resolution separates a racemate into its two enantiomers. iupac.qmul.ac.uk
- An instrument's ability to distinguish closely spaced spectral components concerns its resolving power. materias.df.uba.ar
- The Latin source connects loosening or unbinding with solving a problem. en.wiktionary.org
- 11In medicine, the subsiding of inflammation or disease, as debris is cleared away and the tissue returns to normal.
- 12An exact sequence of modules or related objects that ends in a given object M; equivalently, a complex whose homology is M in degree zero and zero elsewhere.
Practice
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Origin
Latin resolvō ('to loosen'), made of the intensive prefix re- and solvō ('to loosen'), produced the noun resolūtiō ('a loosening, solution'). English had it by 1412 as Middle English resolucioun ('dissolution'), taken either through Anglo-Norman resolucion or straight from the Latin.