Word.ws English Dictionary

Perlin noise

Perlin noise noun: random-looking visual noise generated by a function, widely used in computer graphics to simulate effects such as fire and clouds.

perlin noise: random-looking visual noise generated by a function, widely used in computer graphics to simulate...
Image: Reedbeta using C++ code based on Ken Perlin 's Java, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Perlin noise (uncountable)

  1. Random-looking visual noise generated by a function, widely used in computer graphics to simulate effects such as fire and clouds.
    • “And it needs more texture. A bit of Perlin noise. It should look a little rougher, otherwise it doesn’t seem real.”2022, Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Vintage (2023), page 476

Origin of Perlin noise

After its developer, Ken Perlin.

Questions about Perlin noise

What does Perlin noise mean?
Perlin noise means random-looking visual noise generated by a function, widely used in computer graphics to simulate effects such as fire and clouds.
What part of speech is Perlin noise?
Perlin noise is a noun.

Words near Perlin noise in the dictionary

  1. perlid
  2. perlids
  3. perlieu
  4. perlieus
  5. perlin
  6. Perlin noise
  7. perlins
  8. Perlis
  9. Perlish
  10. perlite
  11. perlites

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Perlin noise (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: “Perlin noise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/perlin_noise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.