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• graphic
  graphic

  adjective

  giving a clear and effective picture; vivid.
• -graphic
  -graphic

  a combination of -graph and -ic, forming adjectives corresponding to nouns ending in -graph:

graphic

¹ American  

[graf-ik] / ˈgræf ɪk /

adjective

1. giving a clear and effective picture; vivid.

   a graphic account of an earthquake.

   Synonyms:

   detailed, telling, striking

2. pertaining to the use of diagrams, graphs, mathematical curves, or the like; diagrammatic.

3. of, relating to, or expressed by writing.

   graphic symbols.

4. written, inscribed, or drawn.

5. depicted in a realistic or vivid manner.

   graphic sex and violence.

6. containing graphic descriptions.

   a graphic movie.

7. Geology. (of a rock) having a texture formed by the intergrowth of certain minerals so as to resemble written characters.

8. Mathematics. pertaining to the determination of values, solution of problems, etc., by direct measurement on diagrams instead of by ordinary calculations.

9. of or relating to the graphic arts.

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noun

graphics plural

1. a product of the graphic arts, as a drawing or print.

2. a computer-generated image.

-graphic ² American  

1. a combination of -graph and -ic, forming adjectives corresponding to nouns ending in -graph:

   telegraphic.

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graphic British  

/ ˈɡræfɪk /

adjective

1. vividly or clearly described

   a graphic account of the disaster

2. sexually explicit

3. of or relating to writing or other inscribed representations

   graphic symbols

4. maths using, relating to, or determined by a graph

   a graphic representation of the figures

5. of or relating to the graphic arts

6. geology having or denoting a texture formed by intergrowth of the crystals to resemble writing

   graphic granite

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Usage

What does -graphic mean? The combining form -graphic is used like a suffix meaning “of or relating to something drawn or written," often to denote a recording of something. It is often used in scientific and technical terms. The combining form -graphic comes from a combination of two forms. The first is -graph, from Greek -graphos, meaning “drawn or written, one who draws or writes.” The second form is the suffix -ic, which denotes an adjective. What are variants of -graphic?While -graphic doesn't have any variants, it is related to the forms -graphy, as in telegraphy, as well as -graph, as in pictograph. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use articles on -graphy and -graph.

Synonym Usage

See picturesque.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• graphicalness
  noun
• graphicness
  noun
• nongraphicalness
  noun
• nongraphic
  adjective
• nongraphical
  adjective
• ungraphic
  adjective
• ungraphical
  adjective
• graphically
  adverb
• nongraphically
  adverb
• ungraphically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• graphics
  plural

Etymology

Origin of graphic

First recorded in 1630–40; from Latin graphicus “of painting or drawing,” from Greek graphikós “able to draw or paint,” equivalent to gráph(ein) “to draw, write” + -ikos -ic; cognate with carve

Explanation

Something graphic is visual. Graphic design is made of visual elements. A graphic novel tells its story with pictures. And a story that is too graphic is too good at showing you things that are, for example, shocking or violent. Derived from the Greek graphikos, meaning "drawn" or "written," graphic shows up often before words such as design or art. There's debate over whether Norman Rockwell was a painter or just a graphic artist. In certain cases, usually involving loaded issues such as violence or sex, graphic means overly clear in a visual way. Gruesome slasher movies could be too graphic for some viewers, leaving them feeling sick to their stomachs.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

graphic graphics

He lovingly omits most graphic footage, but commits to approaching his and Adrian’s shared story from a different viewpoint — a remake.

From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026

Iren said in the press release that customer prepayments made up approximately 45% of the capital expenditures associated with graphic processing units, “reducing Iren’s net funding requirement for those deployments.”

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026

The Times reported in March that the department was conducting an internal investigation into whether graphic crime scene photos of the July 2025 blast were improperly shared.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2026

Unfortunately, anyone can paste a USB-like graphic on a product listing online, he says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

If you were creating a graphic dictionary and needed a definition of demure, you would use her expression in this picture.

From "Shelter (Book One): A Mickey Bolitar Novel" by Harlan Coben

Mouse House is hiring PhD-level talent to study “computer graphics and AI” for Pixar and Disney films, people to “bridge the gap between research and practical studio application.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026

Advanced Micro Devices has been coming after Nvidia in the market for graphics processing units.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026

Anthropic runs computing workloads across chips including Google’s tensor-processing units, Amazon.com’s Trainium chips, and Nvidia graphics processing units, or GPUs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

When the crypto market weakened in 2018, Intrator and the team, risk managers by trade, saw an opportunity to repurpose the company’s Nvidia graphics processing units for training and running AI models.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

The space imagery on the ceiling dissolved into ten distinct panels, each one becoming a display of swirling graphics.

From "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein