depicted
Americanadjective
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represented by or as if by painting or other visual image; portrayed.
The viewer of this striking painting is lured into the possible narrative of the depicted figure by her beauty, strength, and grace.
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represented or characterized in words.
Subtle cues in the text indicate the tone or stance the author is taking towards the depicted events.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of depicted
Explanation
If your brother is depicted as a couch potato in your autobiographical novel, it means that you described him in a certain way, so that he came across as a lazy TV watcher. The adjective depicted means "shown or represented." A person or thing can be depicted in a particular way through a description, a drawing, a photograph, or any other artistic medium. Whenever a vivid picture of something — like life in Victorian England — is presented, that thing is being depicted. The Latin root depictus comes from the prefix de, meaning "down," and pingere, "to paint," and it means "to portray, paint, sketch or imagine."
Vocabulary lists containing depicted
Unit 4: Powerful Openings
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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
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The Last Beekeeper
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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.
Popular culture has often depicted the dodo as clumsy and unintelligent, sometimes suggesting that its extinction was almost unavoidable.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 9, 2026
Hopefully the generation of Gen Z musicians depicted in the film still lust over the chance to try, even as a wretched economy makes road-dogging harder today while digital fame beckons instead.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
The Anthony Bourdain who is depicted in the new movie “Tony” isn’t the Anthony Bourdain who chef Eric Ripert knew over more than a decade of friendship.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Separately, UK actor Hannah Waddingham is depicted next to her "NHS surgeon beau", who the paper says has got a "Hollywood makeover".
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
Ernest Rutherford depicted the atom as a miniature solar system, with negatively charged electrons surrounding a tiny yet massive nucleus consisting of positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
