Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Showing results for painting. Search instead for linting.
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 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; paint, -ing 1

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.

“There’s people who are like ‘Cudi painting now?

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2026

In the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, artist MisterAlek transformed a Cesar Chavez mural he painted in 2021 and replaced it with a painting of Delores Huerta.

From BBC • Mar. 30, 2026

As seen in the exhibition, his Conté crayon drawings from these months informed his paintings, which pointedly eschewed any hint of the picturesque and also of Impressionist painting.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 28, 2026

But after the statistic was clipped up and shared all over social media, venues in the city say the stats could be painting a false picture of the health of Newcastle's local scene.

From BBC • Mar. 28, 2026

He told me to take up hobbies to distract myself, as he had done—hunting, oil painting, and so on.

From "The Interrupted Tale" 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.