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
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
Reflecting this softer and more mainstream meaning, British Vogue captioned their photo of Heated Rivalry actor Hudson Williams arriving at the 2026 Golden Globes as him "mogging at the Golden Globes".
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
“This is what they stole from us,” Musk captioned the computer-generated photo of his sci-fi fan fiction.
From Salon ● Nov. 3, 2026
“And you feel the need to share this with us because…?” Camille swipes through her photo album at lightning speed.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
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
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
It can be a jarring shift for students, because college communications before the commitment deadline include glossy magazines with nice photos of campuses.
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
Tesla’s photos and promotional materials gave a hint of the Cybertruck roving around another planet, a clear nod to Musk’s own spacefaring ambitions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
They descended the stairs together, and then a crush of Raman supporters stopped her for photos and congratulations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
Arthur Lundahl set out new aerial photos of Cuba.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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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.
