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word picture

American  

noun

  1. a description in words, especially one that is unusually vivid.

    She drew a word picture of a South Pacific sunset.


word picture British  

noun

  1. a verbal description, esp a vivid one

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of word picture

First recorded in 1855–60

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.

It can kind of turn into a word picture or phrase where you’re just leading the team.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 29, 2021

It always helps when you can paint a word picture for voters, as Biden does with his new ad.

From Fox News • Sep. 28, 2020

Sebald is describing a collective death, a falling away; the people in this word picture, like the felled trees he describes in “The Rings of Saturn,” are as if caught in a kind of swoon.

From The New Yorker • May 29, 2017

Now, if I can paint a word picture for you, on the grounds is the White House.

From Slate • Feb. 21, 2017

The poet leaves his geology and botany, his grammar and rhetoric on the shelf when he makes his word picture.

From Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures by Poore, Henry Rankin