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Synonyms

photo

1 American  
[foh-toh] / ˈfoʊ toʊ /

noun

plural

photos

  1. photograph.

  2. Informal. photo finish.

photo- 2 American  

  1. a combining form meaning “light” (photobiology ); also used to represent “photographic” or “photograph” in the formation of compound words.

    photocopy.
photo 1 British  
/ ˈfəʊtəʊ /

noun

  1. short for photograph

"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
photo- 2 British  

combining form

  1. of, relating to, or produced by light

    photosynthesis

  2. indicating a photographic process

    photolithography
"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
photo– Scientific  

  1. A prefix that means “light,” as in photoreceptor.

Etymology

Origin of photo1

First recorded in 1855–60; shortened form of photograph

Origin of photo-1

< Greek, combining form of phôs (genitive phōtós )

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.

In family photos he appears next to his grandmother, wearing a traditional Moroccan veil.

From BBC

A photo from the event shows Rubin smiling in the crowd.

From The Wall Street Journal

Tagged and shared photos and social-media reminders from years or even decades past have made life at any age a series of before-and-after images.

From Salon

People are using it to analyze federal economic data, recover wedding photos from a corrupted hard drive, build new websites from scratch, answer a barrage of emails or order food.

From The Wall Street Journal

"I said 'no I'm not, I hate having my photo taken' and I made quite a fuss about it."

From BBC

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.