photo
noun
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photo
1 American
[foh-toh]
/ ˈfoʊ toʊ /
photo-
2
American
photo-
1
British
combining form
-
of, relating to, or produced by light
photosynthesis
-
indicating a photographic process
photolithography
photo
2
British
/ ˈfəʊtəʊ /
noun
photo–
Scientific
Other Word 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.
“We were especially impressed with the photo editing tools, which we expect will be heavily trafficked, and which are Apple’s clearest near-term Services monetization opportunity,” Woodring wrote.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 9, 2026
Purwadi had pretended to be Putri on a delivery app, using her name and photo as the account details.
From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026
The updates included more advanced photo editing capabilities, amplifying existing Apple features and making it possible to spatially adjust photos in myriad ways, altering the framing in addition to deleting unwanted people or background objects.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026
A photo of the sign went up on Facebook.
From Salon • Jun. 6, 2026
He ran down, grabbed it from the bottom of the stairs, and noticed a photo on a small table, one he had seen a hundred times.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
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.
