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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

portrait.

A painting or other picture of a person, especially the head and shoulders.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpɔːtɹeɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɔːtɹɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɔɹtɹət/General-American/ˈpɔɹtɹeɪt/General-American
  1. A painting or other picture of a person, especially the head and shoulders.

    countable
  2. An accurate depiction of a person, a mood, etc.

    countable · figuratively
    The author painted a good portrait of urban life in New York in his latest book.
  3. A print orientation where the vertical sides are longer than the horizontal sides.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle French portraict, pourtraict, nominal use of the past participle of portraire (“portray”), from Latin prōtrahō (< prō- + trahō). Compare typologically English drawing.

verb/ˈpɔːtɹeɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɔːtɹɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɔɹtɹət/General-American/ˈpɔɹtɹeɪt/General-American
  1. To portray; to draw.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle French portraict, pourtraict, nominal use of the past participle of portraire (“portray”), from Latin prōtrahō (< prō- + trahō). Compare typologically English drawing.

adj/ˈpɔːtɹeɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɔːtɹɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɔɹtɹət/General-American/ˈpɔɹtɹeɪt/General-American
  1. Representing the actual features of an individual; not ideal.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle French portraict, pourtraict, nominal use of the past participle of portraire (“portray”), from Latin prōtrahō (< prō- + trahō). Compare typologically English drawing.

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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.