caption
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A piece of text appearing on screen as a subtitle or other part of a film or broadcast, describing dialogue….
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kapshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkæpʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Brief description accompanying an illustration
A title or brief explanation attached to an illustration, cartoon, user interface element, etc.
cinematographytelevision
A piece of text appearing on screen as a subtitle or other part of a film or broadcast, describing dialogue (and sometimes other sound) for viewers who cannot hear.
typography
The descriptive heading or title, of a document or part thereof.
verb
To add captions to a text or illustration.
To add captions to a film or broadcast.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (cinematography, television) A piece of text appearing on screen as a subtitle or other part of a film or broadcast, describing dialogue (and sometimes other sound) for viewers who cannot hear.
Used this way, caption is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in news or reporting contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- News/reporting
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use caption
- “A mere caption unworthy of a reply.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Broadcast with captions that are seen only on receivers having special equipment.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.