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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

paint.

A substance that is applied as a liquid or paste, and dries into a solid coating that protects or adds colour to an object or surface to which it has been applied.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/peɪnt//pɛjɳʈ/South-Asia/peɳʈ/South-Asia
  1. A substance that is applied as a liquid or paste, and dries into a solid coating that protects or adds colour to an object or surface to which it has been applied.

    countable · uncountable
    fresh coat of paint
  2. A set of containers or blocks of paint of different colors/colours, used for painting pictures.

    countable · in-plural · uncountable
  3. The free-throw lane, construed with the.

    countable · slang · uncountable
    The Nimrods are strong on the outside, but not very good in the paint.
  4. Paintballs.

    slang · uncountable
    I am running low on paint for my marker.
  5. Synonym of face card (king, queen, or jack).

    countable · slang · uncountable
  6. Graphics drawn using an input device, not scanned or generated.

    attributive · countable · uncountable
  7. Makeup.

    uncountable
  8. Tattoo work.

    slang · uncountable
  9. Any substance fixed with latex to harden it.

    countable · dated · uncountable
  10. The appearance of an object on a radar screen.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-né- Proto-Indo-European *-ti Proto-Indo-European *pinéḱti Proto-Italic *pingō Latin pingō Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Italic *-tos Latin -tus Latin pictus Vulgar Latin *pinctus French peint Proto-Italic *-āzi ▲ Latin -ereinflu. Latin -āre Old French -ier Old French peintierder. Middle English peynten English paint From Middle English peynten, from Old French peintier, paincter, itself from paint, the past participle of paindre, from Latin pingō (“to paint”) (perfect passive participle pictus). Displaced native Old English tēafor (“paint”), *tīefran (“to paint”); and Old English mētan (“to paint”) and mǣlan (“to paint, mark with colour”).

verb/peɪnt//pɛjɳʈ/South-Asia/peɳʈ/South-Asia
  1. To apply paint to.

    transitive
    I painted the bathroom walls light blue, and I painted the ceiling white.
  2. To apply in the manner that paint is applied.

    transitive
  3. To apply with a brush in order to treat some body part.

    transitive
  4. To cover (something) with spots of colour, like paint.

    transitive
  5. To create (an image) with paints.

    transitive
    to paint a portrait or a landscape
  6. To practise the art of painting pictures.

    intransitive
    I've been painting since I was a young child.
  7. To draw an element in a graphical user interface.

    transitive
  8. To depict or portray.

    figuratively · transitive
    She sued the author of the biography, claiming it painted her as a duplicitous fraud.
  9. To color one's face by way of beautifying it.

    intransitive
  10. To detect (something) with radar.

    slang · transitive
    "We'll paint the target for the flyboys," the JTAC said.
  11. To defecate or soil with faeces during anal sex.

    slang · transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- Proto-Indo-European *-né- Proto-Indo-European *-ti Proto-Indo-European *pinéḱti Proto-Italic *pingō Latin pingō Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Italic *-tos Latin -tus Latin pictus Vulgar Latin *pinctus French peint Proto-Italic *-āzi ▲ Latin -ereinflu. Latin -āre Old French -ier Old French peintierder. Middle English peynten English paint From Middle English peynten, from Old French peintier, paincter, itself from paint, the past participle of paindre, from Latin pingō (“to paint”) (perfect passive participle pictus). Displaced native Old English tēafor (“paint”), *tīefran (“to paint”); and Old English mētan (“to paint”) and mǣlan (“to paint, mark with colour”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.