portrait
Americannoun
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portraits
plural
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a likeness of a person, especially of the face, as a painting, drawing, or photograph.
a gallery of family portraits.
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a verbal picture or description, usually of a person.
a biography that provides a fascinating portrait of an 18th-century rogue.
adjective
noun
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a painting, drawing, sculpture, photograph, or other likeness of an individual, esp of the face
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( as modifier )
a portrait gallery
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a verbal description or picture, esp of a person's character
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of portrait
1560–70; < Middle French: a drawing, image, etc., noun use of past participle of portraire to portray
Explanation
A portrait is a portrayal of a person, usually showing the person's face (but not always). A portrait can be a painting, a photograph, an ink drawing, a sculpture — or even a description in words or in a film. Portrait is a term often used when talking about artwork. Go to an art museum, especially one that has a historic collection, and you'll likely see many portraits hanging on the walls. Formal portraits were commissioned by wealthy people throughout history. A portrait can also be a written description of someone's appearance or character. If you describe your Mom in such detail that everyone can imagine what she's like, you've created a portrait of her.
Vocabulary lists containing portrait
Face It: Selfie Vocab
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Inside Out & Back Again
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"Earthquake"
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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:
Emblazoned on his outer forearm is a menacing portrait of Tony Montana from the 1983 film “Scarface.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Before placing Castro's portrait in the window, Leonel Suarez gives it a kiss.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Mr. Greene’s portrait of Jesse Owens and the Ernie Davis story are a reminder that athletic feats transcend hatred.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
His negative portrait was published more than 40 years ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
The boy imagined me sitting in my bed, under the portrait of you, and him trying to tell both of us what he’d done to Toby Crawford.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
I scroll through the portraits he’d emailed me: two women laughing, a family smiling, and my personal favorite, a pop-artish rendering of Gigi Hadid.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
At the Zurbatiyah crossing, large fans sprayed mist to cool the heat as pilgrims passed portraits of Khamenei, his son and successor Mujtaba, and other slain commanders from Iran's so-called "axis of resistance."
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
However, like many other female artists, she was largely forgotten, as fashions changed and some of her portraits were re-attributed to male artists.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
Online users can log onto the webpage and browse through dozens of family portraits or a few oral interviews on the site, including that of the Gamboa family, which lived in the Bishop neighborhood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
In the few portraits of Washington in which Billy appears, a horse usually obscures his body, but he is depicted with fairly dark skin.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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.
