Word.ws English Dictionary

Bézier curve

/ˈbɛz.i.eɪ/

Bézier curve noun: a type of parametric curve defined by a set of control points, two of which are the ends of the curve, while the others determine its shape.

bézier curve: a type of parametric curve defined by a set of control points, two of which are the ends of the...
Image: Phil Tregoning, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Bézier curve (plural Bézier curves)

  1. A type of parametric curve defined by a set of control points, two of which are the ends of the curve, while the others determine its shape.
    • Bézier curves are applied, for example in computer graphics and animation, to produce smooth, infinitely scalable curves.
    • So, instead, it is often better to combine multiple Bézier curves to form a longer, more complicated curve called a piecewise Bézier curve.
      This section discusses how to join Bézier curves together – especially how to join them so as to preserve continuity and smoothness (i.e., continuity of the...2003, Samuel R. Buss, 3D Computer Graphics: A Mathematical Introduction with OpenGL, Cambridge University Press, page 163
    Synonyms:
    bezier

Synonyms of Bézier curve

Forms of Bézier curve

pluralBézier curves

Origin of Bézier curve

Probably a calque of French courbe de Bézier. Named after Renault engineer Pierre Bézier who popularized the curves developed earlier by Paul de Casteljau and used them to design curves for the bodywork of cars.

Questions about Bézier curve

What does Bézier curve mean?
Bézier curve means a type of parametric curve defined by a set of control points, two of which are the ends of the curve, while the others determine its shape.
What part of speech is Bézier curve?
Bézier curve is a noun.
How do you pronounce Bézier curve?
Bézier curve is pronounced /ˈbɛz.i.eɪ/.
What is the plural of Bézier curve?
The plural of Bézier curve is Bézier curves.

Words near Bézier curve in the dictionary

  1. béret
  2. béreted
  3. bérets
  4. Béthune
  5. Bézier
  6. Bézier curve
  7. Bézier curves
  8. Bézier spline
  9. Bézier splines
  10. Bézier surface
  11. Bézier surfaces

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Bézier curve (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Bézier curve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/b%C3%A9zier_curve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.