diagram
Americannoun
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diagrams
plural
-
a figure, usually consisting of a line drawing, made to accompany and illustrate a geometrical theorem, mathematical demonstration, etc.
-
a drawing or plan that outlines and explains the parts, operation, etc., of something.
a diagram of an engine.
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a chart, plan, or scheme.
verb (used with object)
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diagrams,
present (3rd person singular)
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diagramed,
past participle, past
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diagrammed,
past participle, past
-
diagraming,
present participle
-
diagramming
present participle
noun
-
a sketch, outline, or plan demonstrating the form or workings of something
-
maths a pictorial representation of a quantity or of a relationship
a Venn diagram
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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diagrammableadjective
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diagrammaticadjective
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misdiagrammedadjective
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undiagramedadjective
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undiagrammedadjective
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diagrammaticallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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diagramsimple
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diagramssimple
-
have diagramedperfect
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have diagrammedperfect
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has diagramedperfect
-
has diagrammedperfect
-
am diagramingprogressive
-
am diagrammingprogressive
-
are diagramingprogressive
-
are diagrammingprogressive
-
is diagramingprogressive
-
is diagrammingprogressive
-
have been diagramingperfect progressive
-
have been diagrammingperfect progressive
-
has been diagramingperfect progressive
-
has been diagrammingperfect progressive
Past
-
diagramedsimple
-
diagrammedsimple
-
had diagramedperfect
-
had diagrammedperfect
-
was diagramingprogressive
-
was diagrammingprogressive
-
were diagramingprogressive
-
were diagrammingprogressive
-
had been diagramingperfect progressive
-
had been diagrammingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of diagram
1610–20; < Latin diagramma < Greek: that which is marked out by lines. See dia-, -gram 1
Explanation
A diagram is a drawing that shows the different parts of something and how they work together. If you follow a diagram for assembling bunk beds and finish with parts left over, you should ask for the top bunk, not the bottom one. Diagram goes back to the Greek verb diagraphein, meaning "to mark out by lines," and a diagram uses line drawings to explain something. Electronic equipment comes with a long instruction booklet and a one-page diagram, and it's usually the diagram that helps most in connecting the device. A diagram can also be a complex drawing, like an engineering plan for airplanes. When you make a line drawing of your own, you can use diagram as a verb, as when you diagram a sentence.
Vocabulary lists containing diagram
Write On!: Graph and Gram
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TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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Word Generation Science - Scientific Thinking
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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.
See Examples For:
Guests will also receive a zine-style pamphlet with the same homespun appeal explaining each of the eight sections in RM’s words alongside a diagram of the room.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
Professor Nohria plugs the talent agency game into a basic diagram.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Multiple FBI agents received copies of the diagram, but it was never shared with the British interrogators, even though it had been couriered to the police station where Bayoumi was being held in custody.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
But the Venn diagram of people who will love Niles the crocodile and those who care what shoes Pete Davidson wears isn’t a circle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
They were accustomed to having all the clues neatly laid out on a diagram placed in front of the exhibit.
From "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg
“Turns out we just have some paperwork to do and some diagrams but as everybody knows, I’m looking to move so I can be more educational and help more animals,” Blair wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
No need to untangle the complex hypocrisy here — it’s all laid out in arrows and diagrams.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
In “How Black Music Took Over the World,” Mr. Gibbs uses clocklike diagrams to illustrate “many of the aspects of Black music that are hard to notice, or get hidden, using Western notation.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
Over time, published diagrams came close to showing the true shape of the optic nerves but never captured it fully.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 19, 2025
More diagrams showed how to tear paper and have it reassemble itself, and how to pour water into a shoe and leave the shoe dry.
From "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick
They’ve been so good that offenses have diagramed plans around them, assigning double-teams and going above and beyond to neutralize them.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2023
Watch Purdy take the snap, forget what’s supposed to happen or how a play was diagramed, keep your eyes on the overachieving quarterback, and just hold your breath.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 28, 2023
He was a coach with few rules, but players competed hard for him because he managed relationships as well as he diagramed plays.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 29, 2021
There’s the stately, even pace of the clauses, like a sentence diagramed by a tweedy lecturer; the stuffy hyperbole of “Cretaceous period”; the little fluff of emphatic plumage in “extravagantly.”
From New York Times ● May 16, 2018
“We haven’t diagramed a single sentence all year. I’m getting worried about the College Boards.”
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
They diagrammed it for their BP sponsors as a big triangle beneath the rising line of future carbon emissions, what Socolow recalls describing as a “wedge,” cut up into equal-sized slices.
From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026
Today’s diagrammed position comes from an 1898 game between two of the strongest players of the day — Russia’s Mikhail Chigorin and Germany’s Siegbert Tarrasch.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 20, 2023
Forget the stodgy days of X’s and O’s diagrammed in the playbook.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 27, 2022
You already have diagrammed some of the Mark Twain excerpt and know how plots move along.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021
He came and diagrammed a few sentences for her.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
Schmedding won’t be the only one diagraming plans to slow down that offense.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 22, 2023
Willis said he’s had no problem diagraming plays — whether it be Liberty’s offense or the plays taught to him during the session.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 2, 2022
But you could also write her legacy just by diagraming her coaching tree, and that version might be even more impressive.
From Washington Post ● May 25, 2017
Like most successful coaches, Smith was adept at diagraming plays on a blackboard.
From New York Times ● Feb. 8, 2015
Oh, I see," Cleo replied, somewhat satisfied at the diagraming, "and our vacation out at Bellaire is to be a cross between a wedding and a trip to Europe.
From The Girl Scouts at Bellaire Or Maid Mary's Awakening by Lilian Garis
On the upside, kids no longer have to spend hours of their wild and precious lives diagramming sentences.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2025
It’s much more than an exercise in diagramming a sentence.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 24, 2023
It was like he was diagramming the whole thing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 23, 2022
Breaking through creative roadblocks can be challenging, but Isaac and Karen trade tricks, such as diagramming passages of your favorite writing and inventing weird rules to find a voice that fits your work.
From Slate ● Mar. 24, 2022
Mother had played a game with Conrad and me, teaching us diagramming at an early age.
From "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals
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.
