profile

American  

[proh-fahyl] / ˈproʊ faɪl /

noun

• profiles
  plural

1. the outline or contour of the human face, especially the face viewed from one side.

   Synonyms:

   silhouette

2. a picture or representation of the side view of a head.

3. an outlined view, as of a city or mountain.

4. an outline of an object, as a molding, formed on a vertical plane passed through the object at right angles to one of its principal horizontal dimensions.

5. a drawing or the like representing this.

6. Surveying. a vertical section of the ground surface taken parallel to a survey line.

7. a verbal, arithmetical, or graphic summary or analysis of the history, status, etc., of a process, activity, relationship, or set of characteristics.

   a biochemical profile of a patient's blood;

   a profile of national consumer spending.

8. an informal biography or a concisely presented sketch of the life and character of a person.

9. Digital Technology. the personal details, images, user statistics, social media timeline, etc., that an individual creates and associates with a username or online account.

10. a set of characteristics or qualities that identify a type or category of person or thing.

    a profile of a typical allergy sufferer.

11. the look, configuration, or lines of something.

    cars with a modern profile.

12. degree of noticeability; visibility.

13. Psychology. a description of behavioral and personality traits of a person compared with accepted norms or standards.

14. Theater. a flat stage property or scenic piece cut from a firm, thin material, as of beaverboard or plywood, and having an irregular edge resembling the silhouette of a natural object.

15. (in a gear) the outline of either end of a tooth.

16. Naval Architecture. a longitudinal elevation or section of a vessel.

---

verb (used with object)

• profiles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• profiled,
  past participle,  past
• profiling
  present participle

1. to draw a profile of.

2. to produce or present a history, description, or analysis of.

   The magazine will profile the candidate in its next issue.

profile British  

/ ˈprəʊfaɪl, ˈprəʊfɪlɪst /

noun

1. a side view, outline, or representation of an object, esp of a human face or head

2. a view or representation of an object, esp a building, in contour or outline

3. a short biographical sketch of a subject

4. a graph, table, or list of scores representing the extent to which a person, field, or object exhibits various tested characteristics or tendencies

   a population profile

5. a vertical section of soil from the ground surface to the parent rock showing the different horizons

6. 1. a vertical section of part of the earth's crust showing the layers of rock

   2. a representation of such a section

7. the outline of the shape of a river valley either from source to mouth ( long profile ) or at right angles to the flow of the river ( cross profile )

---

verb

1. to draw, write, or make a profile of

2. to cut out a shape from a blank (as of steel) with a cutter

profile Idioms  

1. see keep a low profile.

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• half-profile
  noun
• profiler
  noun
• profilist
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• profiles
  plural

Participles

• profiling
  present
• profiled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• profile
  simple
• profiles
  simple
• have profiled
  perfect
• has profiled
  perfect
• am profiling
  progressive
• are profiling
  progressive
• is profiling
  progressive
• have been profiling
  perfect progressive
• has been profiling
  perfect progressive

Past

• profiled
  simple
• had profiled
  perfect
• was profiling
  progressive
• were profiling
  progressive
• had been profiling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will profile
  simple
• will have profiled
  perfect
• will be profiling
  progressive
• will have been profiling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of profile

First recorded in 1650–60; (for the noun) from Italian prof(f)ilo, noun derivative of profilare “to delineate, outline,” from pro- pro- ¹ + -filare, derivative of filo “line, thread,” from Latin fīlum

Explanation

If a magazine editor asks you to write a profile of an up-and-coming novelist, she's asking you to write a biographical sketch, to give the readers a sense of the novelist as a person. Profile comes from the Italian profilo, the thin colored border of cloth that outlines a garment. It came to mean any kind of sketch or outline, especially of faces. If someone compliments your profile means you look nice from the side (try outlining from other angles). If you have a criminal profile, your criminal record creates a picture of an active life of crime. A profile is also a drawing of the earth in cross-section, showing layers of crust.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

profile profiles profiled profiling

The force - which has updated its Facebook profile picture to an image of a gold coin - said it hoped the discovery would end up in "the right place" and change people's lives.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

Every institution receiving federal funds should be required to disclose the full racial and statistical profile of applicants, admitted students and matriculants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Southeast Asia's biggest economy has long battled corruption in its public and private sectors despite strengthening anti-graft laws, creating special investigative commissions and arresting several high profile people.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

Thiago has the profile of a forward who can deliver in bursts, particularly against weaker opposition, and Brentford are likely to continue looking for him regularly inside the penalty area.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

She was always looking at her side profile in the mirror and trying to keep her mouth set in a certain way.

From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers

Dean Huijsen, Milos Kerkez and Illia Zabarnyi arrived with low profiles and were all trusted with regular Premier League minutes before all three moved on in return for significant transfer fees.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

“That have complex flavor profiles, that are not just juice and a splash of soda or a lime or something.”

From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026

Press coverage swells with glowing profiles of landowners who turned down offers from developers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Job seekers are increasingly adding artificial-intelligence terms and skills to their résumés and online profiles to attract employers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

Their black profiles stood out in silhouette against the setting light Lancelot’s, the old ugly man’s, was the outline of a gargoyle.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Short already was profiled in the 2026 Netflix documentary “Marty, Life Is Short,” nominated for three Emmys in its own right.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

Charniak, 85, is one of several families profiled in the new book “Grandfamilies: Stories of Children and the Loving Relatives Who Raise Them.”

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 8, 2026

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution profiled two Argentine-Americans living in North Carolina who had supported Trump because of his tough stance against undocumented immigrants.

From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2026

Another, who's a Hollywood producer on the side, was recently profiled by Vanity Fair magazine.

From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026

And she paused there, profiled to Shorty, looking at the sky.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

But activists say hundreds have been pushed across the border from Assam in recent months without due legal process, often based on ethnic profiling.

From Barron's ● May 29, 2026

The National Security Agency also developed a behavioral profiling program, SKYNET, to identify Al Qaeda couriers in Afghanistan.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2026

The paper, titled "Single-nucleus chromatin accessibility profiling identifies cell types and functional variants contributing to major depression" by Anjali Chawla and Gustavo Turecki et al., was published in Nature Genetics.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 23, 2026

He tracked changes in the microbial populations using advanced DNA analysis and metabolite profiling to better understand how fermentation unfolds.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 16, 2026

Studies of racial profiling typically report the total number of people stopped and searched, disaggregated by race.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

Related Words

• analysis
• biography
• chart
• review
• sketch
• study
• survey