photograph
Americannoun
-
photographs
plural
verb (used with object)
-
photographs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
photographed,
past participle, past
-
photographing
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
photographs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
photographed,
past participle, past
-
photographing
present participle
-
to practice photography.
-
to be photographed or be suitable for being photographed in some specified way.
The children photograph well.
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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rephotographverb (used with object)
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photographableadjective
-
unphotographableadjective
-
unphotographedadjective
-
well-photographedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
photographsimple
-
photographssimple
-
have photographedperfect
-
has photographedperfect
-
am photographingprogressive
-
are photographingprogressive
-
is photographingprogressive
-
have been photographingperfect progressive
-
has been photographingperfect progressive
Past
-
photographedsimple
-
had photographedperfect
-
was photographingprogressive
-
were photographingprogressive
-
had been photographingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of photograph
Explanation
When you take a picture with a camera, the result is a photograph, a picture of your subject created by a special medium’s exposure to light. The first photographs were created on metal plates coated with a special chemical. Although photography as we know it did not emerge until the 19th century, the word photograph evolved from the ancient Greek words phot-, "light," and graph-, "writing," which were combined to create the word for taking pictures — "light writing." Nowadays we take our photographs with electronic cameras, recording, transferring, and storing the pictures digitally. Times change, and while many people still enjoy using film cameras, they are becoming increasingly rare, and certain types of films are no longer produced.
Vocabulary lists containing photograph
Write On!: Graph and Gram
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Introduction to Informational Text
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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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:
Flock’s roughly 120,000 cameras nationwide can photograph the license plates and other details of every passing car.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
The official turned his laptop screen towards her and immediately she recognised her deceased mother in a photograph from April 2025.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
There are parts of the island you’re not allowed to photograph, “secure zones” consisting of dilapidated military buildings topped with ragged, sun-bleached Albanian flags.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
Ernetti produced an image he believed was akin to the Christ he witnessed, which was soon debunked as a close-up photograph of a wooden sculpture.
From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026
“I used to play tennis. That’s a good racket she’s got there. You can tell from the P on the face of it —” She practically touched the photograph.
From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott
They were told they had to buy their portfolio photographs from the studio in order to join an agency and become an agency model.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
We have shown photographs of Pam's scarring to Liz O'Riordan, a former breast cancer surgeon.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
We talked several times over a few weeks and I reviewed documents, including photographs and emails that weren’t in the Justice Department files.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
She says, “The photographs that I took, the nightscapes, were intentional. I don’t treat them as documenting.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
By 1850, there are photographs of doctors, showing wise faces, satin waistcoats, and whiskers.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
Pop singer Lady Gaga and her fiancé, tech investor Michael Polansky, were recently photographed with a newborn child during an outing in Northern California, according to Page Six.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
On Tuesday, Prince Harry was photographed signing a wall at a film studio in London, his first appearance since his return.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
The bird was photographed flying over Loch Spelve, a sea loch on the south-east coast of Mull.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
Researchers then photographed both sides of the animal's head against a specially designed grid board before quickly releasing the shark.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
KGB surveillance teams trailed, photographed, and harassed every known or suspected CIA employee in Moscow.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
"Brendan said 'don't worry about Naz, start photographing that kid in the corner. He's going to be bigger than Naz'. That was Daniel," Roberts said.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
Smialowski, who was photographing Trump's return to Washington from a rally in North Carolina, said he was watching carefully as the president appeared to be sitting in a different seat than usual.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
“I would rarely look through the lens when I was photographing people, because I did that once and it caused some conflict.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
The pro skateboarder and photographer shares three photos from his archive and reflects on decades of photographing youth culture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026
No one was on the street but a single tourist who was photographing the sun in the sky.
From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George
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.
