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:
She published a photo of a bullet hole in her car’s rear bumper—and a defiant manifesto.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
On Wednesday, Crowley posted a chummy-looking photo of a breakfast meeting that included Hong and was captioned “Wisconsin Democrats are united.”
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
She contrasted the magazine's photo with the "deaths caused by five heatwaves, a drought, and historic wildfires."
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
Back to that 2016 Cinco de Mayo photo of himself enjoying a taco salad sold at his Trump Hotel in Manhattan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Then she would put the letter up with all the others on the mantelpiece, behind the photo of Papi in his uniform.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
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
The photo- and video-sharing app Instagram is popular among U.S. teens, according to a Pew Research Center survey released this year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2023
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
Today’s move marks the first time Facebook has open-sourced photo- or video-matching technology, the company said.
From The Verge ● Aug. 1, 2019
They studied photo- graphs and technical drawings of the Vemork plant.
From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin
Looking at photos from each of the cities, it can sometimes be hard to tell where they are.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
At least two of the suspects in the sheriff’s photos can be seen holding up their phones.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
It is the main way in which people engage with text, photos and videos they see online.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Crowds stand outside looking at old photos posted on bulletin boards, pictures taken of people before they were rounded up and transported to Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
He takes photos of the drawings, then shows me how to upload and drop them into the program.
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.
