lithograph
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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lithographs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
lithographed,
past participle, past
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lithographing
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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lithographsimple
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lithographssimple
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have lithographedperfect
-
has lithographedperfect
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am lithographingprogressive
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are lithographingprogressive
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is lithographingprogressive
-
have been lithographingperfect progressive
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has been lithographingperfect progressive
Past
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lithographedsimple
-
had lithographedperfect
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was lithographingprogressive
-
were lithographingprogressive
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had been lithographingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of lithograph
First recorded in 1815–25; back formation from lithography
Compare meaning
How does lithograph compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A lithograph is a print that's made using a stone or metal plate. Lithographs are etched into the plate using a chemical reaction. To make a lithograph, an artist draws a design or on the stone plate with a waxy crayon or oil-based ink. After treating the plate with several layers of material, including rosin, talc, and an acidic solution, the lithographer applies ink with a roller. The oily ink only sticks to the waxy image, not the area around it; the resulting lithograph is a crisp reverse image on paper. The Greek roots of lithograph mean "stone" and "to draw."
Vocabulary lists containing lithograph
Visual Arts - High School
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Art History
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Visual Arts - Middle School
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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:
The cover featured a lithograph by Odilon Redon of an enormous eye in the shape of a hot-air balloon, a piece that apparently was inspired by Poe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
The Dancer features similar cut out shapes, although it is a lithograph print.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2025
A lithograph of Hockney’s famous 1974 drawing “Pacific Mutual Life” features the historically preserved PacMutual building with a large clock and the same palm trees lining the plaza.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2025
Then, she visited Gemini G.E.L., a new printmaking workshop in Los Angeles, to see if she could make a lithograph there.
From New York Times ● Oct. 19, 2023
Leah was buried at New York’s elegant Green-Wood Cemetery, portrayed in this 1867 lithograph much like the heavenly Spiritualist Summerland.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
Charcoals, lithographs and pastels reveal his command of darkness and color, a mastery that gave life to his Symbolist visions inspired by religion, literature and myth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
I saw that one of the lithographs uses Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2025
And there is Van Gogh's At Eternity's Gate - one of the very rare survivals of his first printmaking campaign during which he produced six lithographs in November 1882.
From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2025
On other days, you’d likely find him on the gallery’s mezzanine, buried among stacks of reference books to examine the artistic and historical quality of centuries-old and contemporary lithographs, etchings, engravings and other prints.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
Co., in 1903, the leading case on this subject, in which three lithographs designed for a circus poster were protected.
From Copyright: Its History and Its Law by Richard Rogers Bowker
It is considered to be the first box to have been lithographed, according to Dardenne, whose collection can be visited by appointment.
From Reuters ● Aug. 6, 2021
It’s one of the featured attractions in Beauvais Lyons’s “Circus Orbis,” advertised in a set of lithographed posters that both lampoon and celebrate 19th-century popular entertainments.
From Washington Post ● May 2, 2019
It is lithographed instead of engraved, as are real federal debt issues, Winslow says.
From BusinessWeek ● Jan. 18, 2012
The lithographed and painted surfaces wore out, and the frames snapped.
From New York Times ● Dec. 16, 2010
One thousand lithographed stamp mounts are furnished with each album.
From History of the Postage Stamps of the United States of America by John Kerr Tiffany
So the entire staff, its friends, the executives of our lithographing company and their wives were all busy wrapping magazines.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Bogarts were wealthy: young Humphrey's grandfather had invented a process of lithographing on tin.
From Time Magazine Archive
He promptly ran afoul of the Viennese authorities by boasting that he had discovered a way of lithographing bank notes.
From Time Magazine Archive
As to the publication of my fishes, I can, after all, better direct the lithographing of the plates here.
From Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence by Louis Agassiz
Boys, you may go back to your lithographing now.
From The Circus Boys on the Plains : or, the Young Advance Agents Ahead of the Show by Edgar B. P. Darlington
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.
