silhouette.
An artistic depiction, often of a person's profile, in the form of an outline without any other visual details, similar to a shadow, made by cutting a piece of black paper, filling in an outline with a solid colour (usually black), etc.
Meaning & usage
An artistic depiction, often of a person's profile, in the form of an outline without any other visual details, similar to a shadow, made by cutting a piece of black paper, filling in an outline with a solid colour (usually black), etc.
A dark outline of someone or something seen against a brighter background.
I could see a silhouette of a figure looking out from the window, but I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.
An outline of a garment as it appears on a wearer.
A-line is a classic silhouette for dresses and skirts.
A brief written description of someone or something; an outline, a sketch.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Basque *zuLo Basque zulo Basque Ziloetabor. ▲ Basque zulo Basque Zilhoetabor. French silhouetteubor. English silhouette The noun is a unadapted borrowing from French silhouette, from the surname of Étienne de Silhouette (1709–1767), France’s Controller-General of Finances. It has been suggested that the word refers to one or more of the following: * De Silhouette’s penny-pinching policies which led to the French term à la Silhouette, applied to things perceived as austere or cheap, akin to an outline filled only with black. * The fact that de Silhouette only held the office of Controller-General of Finances for about eight months from 4 March to 21 November 1759. * De Silhouette’s outline portraits which he made to decorate his château at Bry-sur-Marne, Val-de-Marne. De Silhouette’s surname is a gallicized form of Basque Ziloeta or Zilhoeta (modern Basque Zulueta), from the local plural stem (see -ak) of zulo (“hole, pit; den, hiding place”), from Proto-Basque *zuLo (“hole”). The verb is derived from the noun.
Often followed by against or upon: to depict (oneself or someone, or something) as a silhouette (noun sense 1 or noun sense 2.1); to project (oneself or someone, or something) upon a background, so as to be like a silhouette.
To appear as a silhouette.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Basque *zuLo Basque zulo Basque Ziloetabor. ▲ Basque zulo Basque Zilhoetabor. French silhouetteubor. English silhouette The noun is a unadapted borrowing from French silhouette, from the surname of Étienne de Silhouette (1709–1767), France’s Controller-General of Finances. It has been suggested that the word refers to one or more of the following: * De Silhouette’s penny-pinching policies which led to the French term à la Silhouette, applied to things perceived as austere or cheap, akin to an outline filled only with black. * The fact that de Silhouette only held the office of Controller-General of Finances for about eight months from 4 March to 21 November 1759. * De Silhouette’s outline portraits which he made to decorate his château at Bry-sur-Marne, Val-de-Marne. De Silhouette’s surname is a gallicized form of Basque Ziloeta or Zilhoeta (modern Basque Zulueta), from the local plural stem (see -ak) of zulo (“hole, pit; den, hiding place”), from Proto-Basque *zuLo (“hole”). The verb is derived from the noun.
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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.