POV

POV (plural POVs)

2. Initialism of point of view.
   2. The (cognitive, mental, or emotional) viewpoint of a certain person; (attributively) from that viewpoint.

      Alternative forms: P.O.V., PoV, p.o.v., pov

      Synonym: viewpoint

      Antonyms: (epistemically) NPOV, point-of-viewlessness; eticness

      Hyponyms: (epistemically) worldview; emicness

      • 1988, Kristin Thompson, Breaking the Glass Armor: Neoformalist Film Analysis, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 308:

        By this time we might suspect that he had not been looking at her in the previous shot, and that the bird shot had been from his pov.

      • 1993, Richard Price, 3 Screenplays, Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 261:

        From his pov, we see Boom Boom Grossman, 60, huge ex-pug Jack Dempsey look-alike with meat-hook hands and meat-pie face.

      • 1999, Laurence A. Rickels, The vampire lectures, page 259:

        When one of the girls goes down into the basement, she is devoured by the POV accompanied by audio portions of werewolfish sounds.

      • 2015, Kate Elliott, The Very Best of Kate Elliott, Tachyon Publications, →ISBN, page 344:

        A female point-of-view (pov) character is not necessarily written from the perspective of a female gaze. […] A pov character is a character through whose eyes and perspective we follow the action of the story.

      • 2022, Peter C. Pugsley, Ben McCann, The Cinematic Influence: Interaction and Exchange Between the Cinemas of France and Japan, Bloomsbury Academic, →ISBN:

        The film takes us immediately to Oscar’s pov, complete with momentary ‘blackouts’ as he blinks. […] Soon, still from Oscar’s pov, he begins lighting up a form of hallucinatory drug, and after a seemingly interminable number of attempts, begins to achieve the high he was seeking.

      • 2022, Nigel Hamilton, “The Missing Key: Theorizing Modern Historical Biography”, in Hans Renders, David Veltman, editors, Fear of Theory: Towards a New Theoretical Justification of Biography, Brill, →ISBN, part I (Reflections on Theory and Biography), page 39:

        Who would dare theorize the history and practice of jazz without taking into account its significant composers, vocalists and instrumentalists from their pov?

   4. (physically) The vantage point of a particular person; (attributively) from that vantage point.

      Coordinate terms: FPV, FPS

      POV videos

      • 2023 March 14, Alexandra Jacobs, “Your Annoying Roommate Is Slaying on TikTok”, in The New York Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 19 March 2023:

        Ms. Brier specializes in point of view, or P.O.V., videos that confront relatable, often hateable characters, with a subtle sneer, gleefully rubbery body and arch delivery of generational catchphrases like “slay, queen” and “I got you,” often repeated for effect.

      • 2025 July 8, Know Your Meme‎^[3]:

        The earliest discovered dwerking video was shared by a TikToker named @mojothewzzrd back in May. Like many dwerking videos, this original video has an unserious tone, given away by its POV caption.

4. Initialism of privately owned vehicle.
6. (finance, computing) Initialism of percentage of volume, a type of securities trading algorithm.

• (point of view) The acronym POV has undergone a semantic shift on the social media app TikTok, where it refers to videos not filmed from any individual's actual point of view, but rather to provide context to a situation.^[1]
• In fan fiction and amateur fiction online, sometimes used to indicate a change of protagonist, e.g. "POV: Bobby".

• OPV, PVO, VOP, OVP