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Synonyms

painting

American  
[peyn-ting] / ˈpeɪn tɪŋ /

noun

  1. a picture or design executed in paints.

  2. the act, art, or work of a person who paints.

  3. the works of art painted in a particular manner, place, or period.

    a book on Flemish painting.

  4. an instance of covering a surface with paint.

painting British  
/ ˈpeɪntɪŋ /

noun

  1. the art or process of applying paints to a surface such as canvas, to make a picture or other artistic composition

  2. a composition or picture made in this way

  3. the act of applying paint to a surface with a brush

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of painting

Middle English word dating back to 1175–1225; see origin at paint, -ing 1

Explanation

If you want to study painting, go to art school. If that doesn’t work out, maybe you can get a job painting houses. Then you can paint a house purple or paint a picture, which is called a painting. Slapping a coat of paint on your apartment walls is painting, but so is creating a masterpiece like Van Gogh's "Starry Night" or maybe even C.M. Coolidge’s “Dogs Playing Poker.” The picture that results from your painting experiments is also called a painting. The Latin root of painting, pingere, means "to paint," but also "to stain, embroider, or tattoo."

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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.

We can all conjure up the painting of him educating these rich white men about the founding principles of America.

From Slate • Apr. 17, 2026

For an artist like Lori, who works part-time at a Chinese food truck while painting and writing art criticism on the side, the job is both a dream and a nightmare.

From Salon • Apr. 17, 2026

And then I stumbled upon this car — the car that’s in the foreground of the painting.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2026

At age 78—just two years before the Gimbels show—Moses had swapped her life of farm work and domestic chores for the brush and easel, turning to painting after arthritis ended her endeavors in embroidery.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026

She marched the trio through the halls until they reached the entryway, where a large, dreary painting loomed.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

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.