Image: Wikimedia Commons

throbber

Animated graphic to indicate background action is being performed

EntityQ1447854

Also known as loading icon · loading icons · spinner · spinners · beach ball · wheel of death

Subclass of: progress indicator

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

A throbber, also known as a loading icon, is an animated graphical control element used to show that a computer program is performing an action in the background, such as downloading content, conducting intensive calculations, or communicating with an external device. In contrast to a progress bar, a throbber does not indicate how much of the action has been completed.

Overview

All data

6 statements · 17% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Different from: spinner
progress bar
Has characteristic: animation
Represents: blocking

On other databases

1 identifiers linking throbber across the web's reference databases

Freebase ID/m/06vkbc

Data quality

statements

17%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 12, 2026. AIDb refreshes this page daily.

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AIDb. (2026). throbber (Q1447854). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/throbber-Q1447854