photograph
Americannoun
-
photographs
plural
verb (used with object)
-
photographs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
photographed,
past participle, past
-
photographing
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
photographs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
photographed,
past participle, past
-
photographing
present participle
-
to practice photography.
-
to be photographed or be suitable for being photographed in some specified way.
The children photograph well.
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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rephotographverb (used with object)
-
photographableadjective
-
unphotographableadjective
-
unphotographedadjective
-
well-photographedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
photographsimple
-
photographssimple
-
have photographedperfect
-
has photographedperfect
-
am photographingprogressive
-
are photographingprogressive
-
is photographingprogressive
-
have been photographingperfect progressive
-
has been photographingperfect progressive
Past
-
photographedsimple
-
had photographedperfect
-
was photographingprogressive
-
were photographingprogressive
-
had been photographingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of photograph
Explanation
When you take a picture with a camera, the result is a photograph, a picture of your subject created by a special medium’s exposure to light. The first photographs were created on metal plates coated with a special chemical. Although photography as we know it did not emerge until the 19th century, the word photograph evolved from the ancient Greek words phot-, "light," and graph-, "writing," which were combined to create the word for taking pictures — "light writing." Nowadays we take our photographs with electronic cameras, recording, transferring, and storing the pictures digitally. Times change, and while many people still enjoy using film cameras, they are becoming increasingly rare, and certain types of films are no longer produced.
Vocabulary lists containing photograph
Write On!: Graph and Gram
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Introduction to Informational Text
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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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:
Some days I walk past a framed photograph of her and have to look away - I find it too sad.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Searches for “Dario Amodei’s wife” on Google often turn up a photograph of his sister, Daniela Amodei, who helps run the company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
She’d sent him a photograph of us and he’d written back “incredible.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
This slow-rolling crisis has hit so hard that when a foreign visitor recently offered $100 for a photograph of his communist hero, Suarez felt he had little choice.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
I stand in the rain, the photograph safe under my coat.
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
Two months later, a snorkeller in Israel carrying a "selfie stick" was killed by sharks, reportedly while trying to get photographs.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Inside, the walls are still covered with his guitars, posters, photographs and other relics from his favorite artists: Aerosmith, Rush, Bowie, Jane’s Addiction and Soundgarden.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
The photographs were almost absurdly theatrical: silver serving pieces and candelabras, the gilt-and-cream grandeur of the White House, and, arrayed beneath it all, mountains of branded fast-food packaging.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
He was spotted "walking throughout the golf course at the Trump Golf Club, wearing an earpiece, and taking photographs and videos of the federal agents' security-planning activities."
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
She was working at her bench, with dozens of photographs strewn around her, and a book full of notes and equations on her desk.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
To better understand how the bodies were placed and how the burial chamber evolved, the researchers excavated the space, photographed the mummies, and created detailed sketches and descriptions.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
Keegan Radomski's home, photographed here before the fire, was built by her grandmother in 1996.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
People showed strange boils and rashes that volunteers photographed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
This followed interviews in which Jenner had spoken about her struggles with constantly being photographed in public.
From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026
I picked them up and held them before the light with strange excitement, curious to see the image that some prior occupant of this room had photographed.
From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin
And they chuck it together and it looks pretty if you’re photographing it and it tastes like God knows what.
From Slate ● Aug. 15, 2026
People should also be careful when photographing the eclipse as the Sun can damage the camera on a phone the same way as it can damage the eyes.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
To prove authenticity, members have resorted to writing numbers directly onto pint glasses or photographing clusters of empty bottles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
According to investigators, the thieves went to the libraries to consult rare and valuable works, photographing and measuring them, and returned later to replace them with virtually undetectable copies.
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
The bodyguard activated a compact digital camera and began photographing each wafer-thin page of the Book.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
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.
