silhouette
Americannoun
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silhouettes
plural
-
a two-dimensional representation of the outline of an object, as a cutout or configurational drawing, uniformly filled in with black, especially a black-paper, miniature cutout of the outlines of a person's face in profile.
-
the outline or general shape of something.
the slim silhouette of a skyscraper.
-
a dark image outlined against a lighter background.
verb (used with object)
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silhouettes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
silhouetted,
past participle, past
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silhouetting
present participle
-
to show in or as if in a silhouette.
-
Printing. to remove the background details from (a halftone cut) so as to produce an outline effect.
noun
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the outline of a solid figure as cast by its shadow
-
an outline drawing filled in with black, often a profile portrait cut out of black paper and mounted on a light ground
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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silhouettesimple
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silhouettessimple
-
have silhouettedperfect
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has silhouettedperfect
-
am silhouettingprogressive
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are silhouettingprogressive
-
is silhouettingprogressive
-
have been silhouettingperfect progressive
-
has been silhouettingperfect progressive
Past
-
silhouettedsimple
-
had silhouettedperfect
-
was silhouettingprogressive
-
were silhouettingprogressive
-
had been silhouettingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of silhouette
First recorded in 1790–1800; from French à la silhouette, after Etienne de Silhouette (1709–67), French finance minister; the surname Silhouette is ultimately from Basque Zilhoeta, from zilo, zilho, zulo “hole” + -eta, toponymic suffix
Explanation
A silhouette is dark shadow, like a silhouette of a person standing under a street lamp, or a drawing that shows only the shape of an object. A silhouette, pronounced "sil-ooh-ET," can be mysterious. After all, you can only see the shape of the person or object. So, it's fitting that the word's origin is a little mysterious, too. It was coined for Etienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister. One theory is that Silhouette decorated his chateau with the kind of dark outline drawings that now bear his name.
Vocabulary lists containing silhouette
Long Way Down
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You Name It: Eponyms
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"The Great Gatsby," Chapter 1 Vocabulary
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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:
Sure, for people with no health insurance, this is an enticing opportunity to effectively pay one month of coverage to get the silhouette of an annual physical, except without an actual doctor present.
From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2026
At its headquarters in the West Midlands of the U.K., designers were tasked with conjuring up a sleek silhouette that engineers had to transform into a viable machine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Ballet flats are back in vogue, and that’s prompted some unlikely companies to hop on the bandwagon with their own riffs on the classic shoe silhouette.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
La Liga 2 side Real Valladolid's home shirt uses the club's traditional stripes, with a silhouette showing the Province of Valladolid stitched into the kit.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
From behind the big top, the silhouette of a balloon rises into the sky, followed by a child’s prolonged wail.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
While Armani already used these luminous touches in his eveningwear, Silvana Armani has multiplied them to emphasise the fluidity and lightness of her silhouettes.
From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026
With all of the slinky silhouettes and wearable neutrals, I had a passing thought that we might be seeing the Rick Owens-ification of Coach.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
But they couldn't see the silhouettes on the slope.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
Matières Fécales had just had their first couture show, where they had all of these insane silhouettes, and we were like, “Duh.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
On the very top they were black silhouettes against the sky.
From "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
The DJ was silhouetted by a large window display of a gigantic, human-sized plastic re-creation of Raising Cane’s chicken tenders and crinkle-cut fries being dipped into a tub of Cane’s Sauce.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
Its glacial flatness doesn’t lend itself to crusades, or to impressive scenes like a man on horseback silhouetted against the sunset.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026
As old as the invention of photography, rayographs—negative, silhouetted photographic prints made by placing objects directly onto light-sensitive paper—are more commonly known as photograms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 27, 2025
Cinematographer Michael Bauman puts together a gorgeous, silhouetted shot of St. Carlos’ skateboarding scouts vaulting over rooftops in front of a building lit up to look like the American flag.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2025
“Regan?!” came a surprised cry, and we both jumped, looking up to see Regan’s mom standing silhouetted in the doorway of the office.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
“The glare and the sunlight was kind of silhouetting him, so I didn’t see his face,” the witness, Capt. Neda K. Othman of the U.S.
From New York Times ● Oct. 28, 2022
We pulled into Sacramento and our first glorious California sunset, a sheet of horizontal oranges and reds silhouetting black water towers and high-tension wires.
From New York Times ● Sep. 6, 2016
The photo captured Watkins’s image by silhouetting his head against an illuminated tree.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 12, 2015
You see it's enough to bring tears to the eyesby silhouetting trees,winter boughs spidery on mist-like white skiestwitched in a breeze.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 18, 2013
Tally gazed down at the familiar skyline, the slender trails of fireworks silhouetting the party towers and mansions.
From "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld
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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.
