Meaning & use
time-lapse video
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A video made by taking single pictures at fixed intervals and playing them fast, so slow changes look quick.
Grammar: Countable: use an or the before it, and add -s for more than one: two time-lapse videos.
Patterns
- a time-lapse video of something
- make/take a time-lapse video
- watch a time-lapse video
She made a time-lapse video of the city skyline changing from day to night.
The science channel posted a time-lapse video showing a flower opening over six hours.
We watched a time-lapse video of the whole building going up in three minutes.
Word forms
| plural | time-lapse videos |
|---|
Common combinations
- make a time-lapse video
- He used his phone to make a time-lapse video of the sunset.
- a time-lapse video of something
- They showed a time-lapse video of the tide coming in.
- shoot a time-lapse video
- The crew shot a time-lapse video of the traffic for the opening scene.
- a stunning time-lapse video
- Her stunning time-lapse video of the desert stars got a million views.
Synonyms and how they differ
- stop-motion video
- Stop-motion also uses many single frames, but the subject is usually moved by hand between shots, not just left to change on its own.
Word family
- time-lapse photography noun
- The technique or art of taking these timed pictures, rather than the finished video.
- time-lapse adjective
- Used before a noun to describe the method: a time-lapse sequence.
Commonly confused: time-lapse video or slow-motion video?
time-lapse video vs slow-motion video
Slow motion does the opposite: it plays fast action much more slowly. A time-lapse video speeds slow action up.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'time-lapse video' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'A time-lapse video of something' is the normal pattern, and clouds moving is exactly the slow change this technique speeds up. Option 1 describes slow motion, which is a different effect; option 2 is wrong because 'a' cannot go with the plural 'videos'; option 3 needs 'a' before the singular countable noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “time-lapse video”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.