photo
noun
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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:
A photo shared in a Facebook post shows the coyote walking away from the camera toward vegetation surrounded by a pitch-black sky.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
The so-called "family photo" would usually include representatives from all nations in attendance, but this year it was cancelled.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
Two Arizona women dressed in red tutus and holiday leggings on Deck 15 brought a photo of Hallmark heartthrob Tyler Hynes on a stick for fellow cruisers to pose with outside their door.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026
But a former Democrat is also running as an independent candidate and has already won about 20,000 votes, so this will be a photo finish either way.
From Slate ● Nov. 4, 2026
Based on how young she looked, it had been taken around the same time as the photo of her with Doc.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
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
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
While the new contenders are young, the amount of backing they are getting shows investors believe new social apps more narrowly focused on photo- and video-sharing, where WeChat is less dominant, could pay off.
From The Verge ● Oct. 17, 2018
They studied photo- graphs and technical drawings of the Vemork plant.
From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin
"I don't understand who is benefiting from the AI photos," she added.
From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2026
Shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz, the photos are largely colorless and show Pugh posing in and on the car in a black leather jumpsuit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
“Behold: the state of chaos that my house has become!” she wrote, while posting photos from her dwelling on Instagram.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
It will also feature Q&A episodes, where viewers can send in seasonal questions, photos and videos to Naturewatch, external for expert analysis.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
We pass photos on the hallway wall of a short boy covered in hair from head to toe, smiling with a man who’s much taller and hairier than he is.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
