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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

photo.

A photograph.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfəʊ̯.təʊ̯/Received-Pronunciation[ˈfəʊ̯.tʰəʊ̯]Received-Pronunciation/ˈfo.to/Scotland[ˈfo.tʰo]Scotland

  1. A photograph.

    informal

  2. A photo finish.

    informal

  3. A digital picture of any kind.

    informal

  4. Photography

    informal
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂os Proto-Hellenic *pʰáwos Ancient Greek φᾰ́ος (phắos) Ancient Greek φῶς (phôs) Ancient Greek φωτο- (phōto-)der. English photo- Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- Proto-Hellenic *grə́pʰō Ancient Greek γράφω (gráphō) Ancient Greek -γρᾰ́φος (-grắphos)der. English -graph English photographclip. English photo Clipping of photograph.

verb/ˈfəʊ̯.təʊ̯/Received-Pronunciation[ˈfəʊ̯.tʰəʊ̯]Received-Pronunciation/ˈfo.to/Scotland[ˈfo.tʰo]Scotland

  1. To take a photograph of.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *bʰéh₂os Proto-Hellenic *pʰáwos Ancient Greek φᾰ́ος (phắos) Ancient Greek φῶς (phôs) Ancient Greek φωτο- (phōto-)der. English photo- Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- Proto-Hellenic *grə́pʰō Ancient Greek γράφω (gráphō) Ancient Greek -γρᾰ́φος (-grắphos)der. English -graph English photographclip. English photo Clipping of photograph.

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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.