photo
noun
photo
1 American
[foh-toh]
/ ˈfoʊ toʊ /
photo-
2
American
photo
1
British
/ ˈfəʊtəʊ /
noun
photo-
2
British
combining form
-
of, relating to, or produced by light
photosynthesis
-
indicating a photographic process
photolithography
photo–
Scientific
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of photo1
First recorded in 1855–60; shortened form of photograph
Origin of photo-2
< Greek, combining form of phôs (genitive phōtós )
Explanation
Snap a picture with your camera and you get a photo, a recorded image made using light. To get a passport, driver's license, or school I.D., you need to have your photo taken. The word photo is short for photograph, a word whose Greek roots mean "written in light." It only took about 20 years after the invention of photographs for people to start using the colloquial (and quicker) photo. If you haven't visited a photo booth with your best friend, you really should; you'll leave with a strip of wonderfully silly photos of the two of you.
Vocabulary lists containing photo
Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: photo
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Words to Know and Academic Words, Unit 3
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
In one photo, Berlant, fresh from glam, seduces the camera; in the other, her face contorts into a rascally grin, eyes half-crossed for effect.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
Roberts posted a photo of a Roadster reservation confirmation email, dated Nov. 30, 2017.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
She’s cagey about what she’ll be for the big shindig, though for our photo shoot she showed up as a green-faced, big-eyed, top-hat-wearing kind of swamp zombie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
To do that, anyone who scans the QR code on the poster has to fill out a questionnaire, upload a photo and include a link to their LinkedIn profile.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
The first photo that came up was lips.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
It is important to develop alternative methods based on photo- and electrocatalysis, taking advantage of the sustainable solar energy and abundance of omnipresent water.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 25, 2024
They welcomed daughter True in April 2018 — just as a photo- and video-fueled cheating scandal involving Thompson and another woman hit the internet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2022
In addition to the social network Facebook, Meta also owns the photo- and video-sharing platform Instagram as well as the messaging application WhatsApp.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2021
While the new contenders are young, the amount of backing they are getting shows investors believe new social apps more narrowly focused on photo- and video-sharing, where WeChat is less dominant, could pay off.
From The Verge ● Oct. 17, 2018
They studied photo- graphs and technical drawings of the Vemork plant.
From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin
When connected to Wi-Fi, you can make unlimited voice or video calls, send texts, plus share photos, videos and large files to anyone with an active WhatsApp account.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
But Tatiana couldn’t resist one indulgence: In a folder, she placed a lock of baby hair that she kept from Alisa and Stupnikov’s infancy, as well as some old photos and his high school certificate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
“There are no words to describe this feeling once again. What a blessing,” Cuoco wrote in her emoji-filled caption accompanying a slideshow of photos introducing their new baby.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
The Guards released photos that appeared to show a plume of black smoke rising from a container vessel that was still afloat but down by the stern.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
Boaz tried looking for additional photos, or any other information that might explain the disappearance of Molly Lewis...or the Molly Sender that he saw every day at work.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
