sonogram
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of sonogram
Explanation
In medicine, a sonogram uses sound waves to display an image of some internal part of a person's body. A pregnant woman might have a sonogram to get a picture of her fetus. A sonogram most commonly produces a two-dimensional black and white image — for example, of a fetus inside its mother's uterus. Doctors use sonograms to see organs, tendons, muscles, and joints as well. A sonogram works by bouncing high frequency sounds against tissue and displaying the reflected or echoed image. The word itself combines the Latin sonus, or "sound," and the word-forming suffix -gram.
Vocabulary lists containing sonogram
Common Senses: Son ("Sound")
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Woman Hollering Creek
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Piecing Me Together
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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.
Hints of a Shrek surprise appeared early on, when Miss Culturista Patti Harrison revealed she was pregnant, showing her sonogram with a green, Shrek-like fetus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
Included in the slideshow they posted Thursday is what appears to be a sonogram image of a fetus in a womb, throwing a “rock on” hand signal.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026
When the mother of two showed up bleeding at Houston Methodist Sugar Land in June 2023, at 11 weeks pregnant, her sonogram suggested an “ongoing miscarriage” was “likely,” her doctor noted.
From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2025
I’ve known friends to forgo different parts of the medical process throughout pregnancies, but the pregnancy-announcing sonogram is de rigueur.
From New York Times ● Aug. 2, 2023
“We don’t know the sex yet. The sonogram is next week,” she says.
From "Piecing Me Together" by Renée Watson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
