snapshot

American  

[snap-shot] / ˈsnæpˌʃɒt /

noun

• snapshots
  plural

1. an informal photograph, especially one taken quickly by a handheld camera.

2. Hunting. a quick shot taken without deliberate aim.

3. Informal. a brief appraisal, summary, or profile.

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verb (used with or without object)

snapshot, snapshotted, snapshotting

1. to photograph informally and quickly.

snapshot British  

/ ˈsnæpˌʃɒt /

noun

1. Often shortened to: snap. an informal photograph taken with a simple camera

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• snapshots
  plural

Etymology

Origin of snapshot

1800–10 snapshot for def. 2; 1860–65 snapshot for def. 1; snap (in the sense “done suddenly or casually”) + shot ¹

Explanation

A snapshot is a quick photograph taken for fun. Be sure to take lots of snapshots while you're on vacation! Using the word snapshot makes it clear you're not talking about professional photographs or artistic shots you've put some thought into. A snapshot just captures a brief moment in time. You can also use this word to mean "impression or summary." A person's obituary, even if deeply moving, can never be more than a snapshot of their varied, complex life. The original 17th0century meaning of snapshot was "quick shot with a gun at a fast-moving target."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

snapshot snapshots snapshotted snapshotting

The poster and key image from the film is a smiling snapshot of Mihai and Lisbet with their children, a seemingly happy family.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

Yeah, those are just polls and they only offer you a vague snapshot in time.

From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026

Looking back, Winston sees the image as a snapshot of a pivotal period in his life.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

However, he said that was a snapshot in time based on the available data at that time.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

The snapshot was fated to become a historical artifact, for within a year, these same men would come together again—as leaders of America’s effort to create the atomic bomb.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Time has now transformed the pictures from informal snapshots of an underground scene into historical documents.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

So I had to kind of do it in snapshots of different periods of my life.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

But these songs are mostly character-driven rather than diaristic, offering brief snapshots of oddballs moving through a confusing landscape.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

Much of the previous work has relied on snapshots taken at a single point in time, focused mainly on school-age children, or lacked repeated measurements throughout early childhood.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 24, 2026

Inside were snapshots, old letters, precious buttons, worry beads.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

The student survey indicating widespread opposition to the policy—released in February shortly after the grade proposal was publicized—was taken at an “unrepresentative moment” because it snapshotted students’ initial shock, she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

Users can choose which apps are used by the feature, and private mode on some browsers will not be snapshotted.

From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2025

“I know sometimes things can be snapshotted in a certain way in a particular cultural moment,” said Hernandez.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2024

Josh Kaplan explains this weird new surveillance technology that most people are still unaware of—especially those whose cars are being snapshotted.

From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2019

But it was not before Inglewood had seen an instantaneous picture so unique that he might well have snapshotted it with his everlasting camera.

From Manalive by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

The Chief of Police has just been here and left instructions that snapshotting is an invasion of private rights.

From The Tempering by Charles Neville Buck

Related Words

• photo