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:
In April, Herbert posted a photo of them on Instagram and captioned it, “My world!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
The detective’s Facebook friends urged her to make her post public, so she did — screenshots of Salute’s court records, her mug shot and her new school photo.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
Police say that the prime suspect in the case is 21-year-old Abdul B. and put out an appeal for information on his whereabouts as well as photo.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
Investigators showed former captives Naumenko’s photo, which they recognized.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Coal’s stomach flipped as he picked up the photo.
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
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
Trump wrote on social media, alongside photos of himself with Netanyahu in the Oval Office.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
He posed for photos with supporters, who wore buttons declaring him “the people’s candidate.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
She says the app has come a long way since it first launched in the US in 2014, with machine learning systems which could identify 285 common bird species from photos.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
People were holding banners with their photos chanting "Nanas! Nanas!"
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
“She used to get so worked up over school photos. Said ‘Those photos are how people will remember you forever.’
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
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.
