Word.ws English Dictionary

f-stop

f-stop noun: any of the discrete steps or stopping points for adjusting the aperture of a lens, either marked on a ring on the lens and adjusted by rotating that ring or marked in the display of a digital camera and adjusted by buttons or touch-sensitive controls.

Noun

f-stop (plural f-stops)

  1. Any of the discrete steps or stopping points for adjusting the aperture of a lens, either marked on a ring on the lens and adjusted by rotating that ring or marked in the display of a digital camera and adjusted by buttons or touch-sensitive controls.
    • Before you know what f-stop you want, you first have to know what it is you are trying to accomplish in the photograph: Do I want to freeze action, or show motion, and consider shutter speed, or, do I need to get a cast of people in focus, or focus selectively, and cater to aperture?2006, Michael Grecco, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Amphoto Books, →ISBN, page 22
    • If you're shooting at an f-stop of 2.8, then the lens will take in a lot more light than it would if the f-stop was at 22.2008 May 23, Ted Kritsonis, “Six of one, half a dozen of the other”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, retrieved 26 Dec 2008

Forms of f-stop

pluralf-stops
alternative formf stop
alternative formf/stop

Origin of f-stop

f is short for focal.

Questions about f-stop

What does f-stop mean?
F-stop means any of the discrete steps or stopping points for adjusting the aperture of a lens, either marked on a ring on the lens and adjusted by rotating that ring or marked in the display of a digital camera and adjusted by buttons or touch-sensitive controls.
What part of speech is f-stop?
F-stop is a noun.
What is the plural of f-stop?
The plural of f-stop is f-stops.

Words near f-stop in the dictionary

  1. F-sharp minor
  2. f-sharps
  3. f-slur
  4. f-slurs
  5. F-statistics
  6. f-stop
  7. f-stops
  8. F-tier
  9. f-value
  10. f-word
  11. f-worded

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: f-stop (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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