What are "display ads"?

[littlegiant]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but this has been vexing me lately and I can't seem to google up any kind of straight answer.

What exactly are "display ads"?

I've seen this phrase bandied about a lot of the webmaster newsletters and articles lately and I have no idea what it means.

Anybody?

P.S. My level of expertise with online advertising is that I've been an Adsense publisher for about three years.

[incrediblehelp]

An advertisement that uses graphics?

[littlegiant]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

An advertisement that uses graphics?

That's what I initially thought but I've seen "display advertising" used in an article to refer to basically any online advertising at all. Then I've seen it used elsewhere to refer to only a certain segment of online advertising (although exactly which segment was unclear).