lithograph
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
-
lithographs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
lithographed,
past participle, past
-
lithographing
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
lithographsimple
-
lithographssimple
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have lithographedperfect
-
has lithographedperfect
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am lithographingprogressive
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are lithographingprogressive
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is lithographingprogressive
-
have been lithographingperfect progressive
-
has been lithographingperfect progressive
Past
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lithographedsimple
-
had lithographedperfect
-
was lithographingprogressive
-
were lithographingprogressive
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had been lithographingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of lithograph
First recorded in 1815–25; back formation from lithography
Compare meaning
How does lithograph compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A lithograph is a print that's made using a stone or metal plate. Lithographs are etched into the plate using a chemical reaction. To make a lithograph, an artist draws a design or on the stone plate with a waxy crayon or oil-based ink. After treating the plate with several layers of material, including rosin, talc, and an acidic solution, the lithographer applies ink with a roller. The oily ink only sticks to the waxy image, not the area around it; the resulting lithograph is a crisp reverse image on paper. The Greek roots of lithograph mean "stone" and "to draw."
Vocabulary lists containing lithograph
Visual Arts - High School
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Art History
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Visual Arts - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The lithograph is among 140 pieces available from a range of artists that can be viewed and selected from the gallery until Sunday.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2025
“Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets,” a thematic survey of 55 paintings and one lithograph at the Barnes Foundation, is that rare, magical exhibition that casts a storybook spell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 15, 2025
A lithograph of Hockney’s famous 1974 drawing “Pacific Mutual Life” features the historically preserved PacMutual building with a large clock and the same palm trees lining the plaza.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2025
But here you’ll find an 1895 lithograph of “The Scream” — the image inspired, he said, by hearing “the scream of nature.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 27, 2023
I can see his clothes in my mind, bright as a lithograph or a full-color advertisement, from an ancient magazine, though not his face, not so well.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
Charcoals, lithographs and pastels reveal his command of darkness and color, a mastery that gave life to his Symbolist visions inspired by religion, literature and myth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
And there is Van Gogh's At Eternity's Gate - one of the very rare survivals of his first printmaking campaign during which he produced six lithographs in November 1882.
From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2025
On other days, you’d likely find him on the gallery’s mezzanine, buried among stacks of reference books to examine the artistic and historical quality of centuries-old and contemporary lithographs, etchings, engravings and other prints.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
Reporters flew first class and Picasso lithographs adorned the walls of an executive dining room.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2024
Co., in 1903, the leading case on this subject, in which three lithographs designed for a circus poster were protected.
From Copyright: Its History and Its Law by Richard Rogers Bowker
It is considered to be the first box to have been lithographed, according to Dardenne, whose collection can be visited by appointment.
From Reuters ● Aug. 6, 2021
It’s one of the featured attractions in Beauvais Lyons’s “Circus Orbis,” advertised in a set of lithographed posters that both lampoon and celebrate 19th-century popular entertainments.
From Washington Post ● May 2, 2019
It is lithographed instead of engraved, as are real federal debt issues, Winslow says.
From BusinessWeek ● Jan. 18, 2012
The lithographed and painted surfaces wore out, and the frames snapped.
From New York Times ● Dec. 16, 2010
I have been having lithographed your letter to me about Caroline.
From The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume II (of 2) by Florence A. Thomas Marshall
The Bogarts were wealthy: young Humphrey's grandfather had invented a process of lithographing on tin.
From Time Magazine Archive
He promptly ran afoul of the Viennese authorities by boasting that he had discovered a way of lithographing bank notes.
From Time Magazine Archive
So the entire staff, its friends, the executives of our lithographing company and their wives were all busy wrapping magazines.
From Time Magazine Archive
Harmony of color is especially desirable—the tint of the paper, the color of the lithographing, embossing or printing, the color of the typewriter ribbon used and the color of the ink used in signing.
From Business Correspondence by Anonymous
My lithograph bill alone, the last successful season of my show, amounted to $40,000, and this was before the days of extensive lithographing.
From Sawdust & Spangles Stories & Secrets of the Circus by W. C. Coup
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
