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photo

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A digital picture of any kind.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

fohtoh

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈfoʊtoʊ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. informal

    A photograph.

  2. informal

    A digital picture of any kind.

  3. informal

    A photo finish.

verb

  1. transitive

    To take a photograph of.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
General English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A digital picture of any kind.

Used this way, photo is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technology and everyday conversation contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Casual
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Playful
Usage feel
Casual and conversational

Where it naturally appears

  • Technology
  • Everyday conversation
  • Social media/informal writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use photo

  • “She took a lovely photo of the blooming flowers.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

photo albumphoto creditphoto courtesycover photosee photoscience photophoto librarycolor photo

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • photo creditnounCompound term

    A note acknowledging the source of a published photograph.

  • photo finishnounCompound term

    In general, any very close finish.

  • photo-offsetnounCompound term

    A method of offset printing using photomechanical plates.

  • photo-offset printingnounCompound term

    A method of offset printing using photomechanical plates.

  • photo opnounCompound term

    An occasion that lends itself to (or is deliberately arranged for) taking photographs that provide favorable publicity for those who are photographed.

  • photo opportunitynounCompound term

    An occasion that lends itself to (or is deliberately arranged for) taking photographs that provide favorable publicity for those who are photographed.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to take a photograph of

photograph

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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.