photograph
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
-
to practice photography.
-
to be photographed or be suitable for being photographed in some specified way.
The children photograph well.
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of photograph
Explanation
When you take a picture with a camera, the result is a photograph, a picture of your subject created by a special medium’s exposure to light. The first photographs were created on metal plates coated with a special chemical. Although photography as we know it did not emerge until the 19th century, the word photograph evolved from the ancient Greek words phot-, "light," and graph-, "writing," which were combined to create the word for taking pictures — "light writing." Nowadays we take our photographs with electronic cameras, recording, transferring, and storing the pictures digitally. Times change, and while many people still enjoy using film cameras, they are becoming increasingly rare, and certain types of films are no longer produced.
Vocabulary lists containing photograph
Write On!: Graph and Gram
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Introduction to Informational Text
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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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.
It was there that Franklin captured the iconic Photograph 51, an X-ray image showing DNA’s criss-cross shape.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 25, 2023
In “The Double Helix,” Dr. Watson suggested that his breakthrough came after Dr. Wilkins showed him one of Dr. Franklin’s images, known as Photograph 51.
From New York Times • Apr. 25, 2023
Photograph your subject from different angles disturbing as little as possible.
From Washington Post • Apr. 24, 2022
In 2017, the 31-year-old settled a $20m copyright infringement case for his song Photograph, something he told Newsnight he now regrets doing.
From BBC • Apr. 8, 2022
Photograph by Nicholas H. Shepherd in 1846 or 1847. buster play in American history.
From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly
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.
