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:
In one photo, Berlant, fresh from glam, seduces the camera; in the other, her face contorts into a rascally grin, eyes half-crossed for effect.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
Roberts posted a photo of a Roadster reservation confirmation email, dated Nov. 30, 2017.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Our staffer @vanessafranko does pen and ink drawings to compensate when artists don’t let us take their photo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
To do that, anyone who scans the QR code on the poster has to fill out a questionnaire, upload a photo and include a link to their LinkedIn profile.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
Would it be cheating to ask Ray for a photo of him?
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
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
Still, the rest of the ByteDance portfolio is no joke, encompassing various games, photo- and video-editing tools, news aggregators, and even virtual reality software across continents.
From Slate ● Mar. 22, 2023
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
They studied photo- graphs and technical drawings of the Vemork plant.
From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin
But Tatiana couldn’t resist one indulgence: In a folder, she placed a lock of baby hair that she kept from Alisa and Stupnikov’s infancy, as well as some old photos and his high school certificate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Mills said she finished singing “Home,” and the stars took photos, but before she left, Gaga’s team stopped her at the elevator and insisted she delete the pictures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
The Guards released photos that appeared to show a plume of black smoke rising from a container vessel that was still afloat but down by the stern.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
I’m not even getting married until 2028, but my Pinterest board is already overflowing with inspo photos of dresses and decor.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
“I mean, it’s on a board with a bunch of photos, so your…your face is kind of covered up, but it’s still there.”
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
