snapshot
Americannoun
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snapshots
plural
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an informal photograph, especially one taken quickly by a handheld camera.
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Hunting. a quick shot taken without deliberate aim.
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Informal. a brief appraisal, summary, or profile.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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."
Vocabulary lists containing snapshot
Photography Lingo
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Additional Literary Terms, Unit 2
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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:
The latest snapshot of consumer prices, for instance, pointed to a small deceleration in inflation in July for the second month in a row.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Tennis is a sport of eras, as Matthew Futterman emphasizes in “The Cruelest Game,” a snapshot of modern tennis and its leading personalities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Islington is a snapshot of a trend also playing out not only in inner London but also other parts of the world.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
"The current results are a snapshot of a moment during infection, and it opens the door to studying flu-host interactions across the entire infection cycle."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
Mom and Dad had never been able to buy the class pictures for us, though a couple of times, Mom secretly snipped a snapshot out of the packet before returning it.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
His instinct was to photograph, but he did not expect one of his lakeside snapshots to go around the world within hours.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
Archived snapshots of the websites for the girls' and boys' sections of the school – taken in the months before the attack - include the address of the site.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
While officials were mum on who blew the whistle, they said an Ipswich player’s parent had posted, then deleted, the snapshots on Facebook.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
They’re snapshots of what you did, why it mattered and how your beliefs influenced your actions.
From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026
He would open his wallet and show me snapshots of his own children, Peter and John Jr., in matching blue suits.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
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
She snapshotted watertanks, whistling posts, lunch stands, section houses, grade crossings and holes in the snowshed—also scenery, people and climate.
From Roughing it De Luxe by John T. McCutcheon
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
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.
