photo
noun
photo
1 American
[foh-toh]
/ ˈfoʊ toʊ /
photo-
2
American
photo
1
British
/ ˈfəʊtəʊ /
noun
photo-
2
British
combining form
-
of, relating to, or produced by light
photosynthesis
-
indicating a photographic process
photolithography
photo–
Scientific
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of photo1
First recorded in 1855–60; shortened form of photograph
Origin of photo-2
< Greek, combining form of phôs (genitive phōtós )
Explanation
Snap a picture with your camera and you get a photo, a recorded image made using light. To get a passport, driver's license, or school I.D., you need to have your photo taken. The word photo is short for photograph, a word whose Greek roots mean "written in light." It only took about 20 years after the invention of photographs for people to start using the colloquial (and quicker) photo. If you haven't visited a photo booth with your best friend, you really should; you'll leave with a strip of wonderfully silly photos of the two of you.
Vocabulary lists containing photo
Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: photo
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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 Independent carries a photo of Badenoch and her husband arm-in-arm at the conference, saying the Tory leader "bets the family home to win back voters".
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
We spent many weekends sorting through all the photo albums and loose photos we’d amassed or inherited, tossing the duplicate pictures and trashing my dad’s slides that were impossible to view easily.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
He also re-created a famous photo with his Icelandic counterpart at Höfði House, highlighting Iceland’s role in the landmark 1986 summit between former President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
"That works for a photo sharing app. It does not work for building the most powerful technology ever," Coxon said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
She picks up the photo we found when we were in Bubbe’s attic and holds it out to me.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
It is important to develop alternative methods based on photo- and electrocatalysis, taking advantage of the sustainable solar energy and abundance of omnipresent water.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 25, 2024
They welcomed daughter True in April 2018 — just as a photo- and video-fueled cheating scandal involving Thompson and another woman hit the internet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2022
In addition to the social network Facebook, Meta also owns the photo- and video-sharing platform Instagram as well as the messaging application WhatsApp.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2021
While the new contenders are young, the amount of backing they are getting shows investors believe new social apps more narrowly focused on photo- and video-sharing, where WeChat is less dominant, could pay off.
From The Verge ● Oct. 17, 2018
They studied photo- graphs and technical drawings of the Vemork plant.
From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin
We spent many weekends sorting through all the photo albums and loose photos we’d amassed or inherited, tossing the duplicate pictures and trashing my dad’s slides that were impossible to view easily.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
The wearables allow users to film, take photos, make phone calls and play music.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
The city is sick, as evidenced in photos of barren studio lots, burning trees and the boarded-up Cinerama Dome.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
This may explain why he has no problem when white men have beards, as seen on his church leader, Doug Wilson, or the many celebrities the defense secretary likes to take photos with.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026
We walk down a hall with photos of Tadeo and Celia and Stan.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
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.
