thumbnail

American  

[thuhm-nayl] / ˈθʌmˌneɪl /

noun

• thumbnails
  plural

1. the nail of the thumb.

2. anything quite small or brief, as a small drawing or short essay.

3. Printing. a small, rough dummy.

4. Also called porkchop. Journalism, Printing. a half-column portrait in a newspaper.

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adjective

1. quite small or brief; concise.

   a thumbnail description of Corsica.

verb (used with object)

1. to make a thumbnail sketch or description of.

thumbnail British  

/ ˈθʌmˌneɪl /

noun

1. the nail of the thumb

2. (modifier) concise and brief

   a thumbnail sketch

3. computing a small image which can be expanded

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• thumbnails
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of thumbnail

First recorded in 1595–1605; thumb + nail

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

thumbnail thumbnails

The publication of my crime is not what floods me with anxiety: It’s the thumbnail, taken inside Orange County jail after I’d spent close to a month recovering from a collapsed lung in the hospital.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026

The thumbnail shows a smiling teen holding oversized shopping bags.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026

The devices created in Lozano's lab are about the size of a thumbnail.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 10, 2026

For each featured book, there’s a thumbnail portrait of its author, an image of the cover and one or two other intriguing visuals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

She picks a long piece of grass and scars it with her thumbnail.

From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King

“With YouTube, a medium with a screen, you have thumbnails, other options competing for your attention and encouraging you to click away,” Martin said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025

It gave users the option to insert themselves into existing thumbnails and recreate the work of other creators.

From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2025

On some occasions, these “faceless” creators have openly boasted about their monetization strategies and how they use A.I. tools to generate thumbnails and titles and even automate their entire workflow.

From Slate ● Mar. 14, 2025

“There are certain things you can do with thumbnails to just get clicks, which we’re not interested in,” says Floris Bauer, co-founder and president of Gunpowder & Sky.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2023

Jody pulled a swollen tick out of Mutt’s neck and popped it dead between his thumbnails.

From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck

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