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
-
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:
Just recently, Enrique Hernández, posted a photograph of himself and four of his teammates online.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
White posted a photograph on his Instagram story showing him smiling from his hospital room.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
She later posted a photograph with her doppelganger, joking that the resemblance was "pure coincidence, not strategy".
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
Astronaut photograph ISS075-E-85249 was taken on August 28, 2026, by a member of the Expedition 75 crew aboard the International Space Station.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
Boaz thought of the memes he’d seen claiming that some actor was actually a time traveler, their doppelgänger found in a vintage photograph.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
Katya showed the BBC documents and photographs confirming her story, which matches accounts from other deportees.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
The commission reviewed more than 10,000 photographs and video segments and collected more than 430 testimonies and interviews with survivors, witnesses, former hostages, experts and family members.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
The BBC showed photographs from the scene to forensics and ballistics experts, who said that the clusters suggested multiple rounds had been fired downward from above, and did not appear indicative of a firefight.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
Because the complete design could be seen only from above, most people encountered it through photographs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
Postmortem photographs of children showed their bodies posed as if asleep or with toys as if still alive.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
For the past three months they have been experimenting with fava beans, which are photographed daily so scientists can monitor their progress.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
On August 28, 2026, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station photographed the Saririaky anorthosite massif, a large body of rock exposed at Earth's surface.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
Both POWs are identifiable as they had been photographed by South Korean media before their arrival to the South.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
Heavy B-1 bombers have been photographed loading munitions and fuel at Fairford.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
She has also begun appearing in public without her shawl covering her face and has even allowed herself to be photographed.
From "Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World" by Malala Yousafzai
Winterich has found that photographing an object makes it easier to let go of.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
"It is a completely different experience," said photographer Hemant Chaturvedi, 58, who has documented what remains during a seven-year odyssey, photographing 1,350 single-screen cinemas across 1,000 towns.
From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026
The identities of the nine women and three men on the jury have not been made public and the judge banned any photographing or filming of them during the trial to retain their anonymity.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Caroline had spent years photographing women who had experienced hair loss through illness.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
No one was on the street but a single tourist who was photographing the sun in the sky.
From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George
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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.
