Word.ws English Dictionary

daguerreotype

/dəˈɡɛɹ.(ɪ.)əʊˌtaɪp/US/dəˈɡɛɚ.(i.)oʊˌtaɪp/

daguerreotype noun: an early type of photograph created by exposing a silver surface which has previously been exposed to either iodine vapor or iodine and bromine vapors; such a photograph.

daguerreotype: an early type of photograph created by exposing a silver surface which has previously been exposed...
Image: Unknown Unknown Restored by Wcamp9, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

daguerreotype (plural daguerreotypes)

  1. An early type of photograph created by exposing a silver surface which has previously been exposed to either iodine vapor or iodine and bromine vapors; such a photograph.
    • The awakening of science to this new way of seeing the cosmos began with Johann Ritter in 1801. By 1815, scientists found that Ritter's “chemical rays” [ultraviolet rays] darkened not just silver chloride but also many other kinds of metallic salts. Between 1826 and 1837, Nicéphore Niépce, credited...2017, Bob Berman, Zapped: From Infrared to X-rays, the Curious History of Invisible Light, Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 72
  2. The process of making such photographs.
  3. (figuratively, obsolete) A faithful or exact representation or description.
    • What was most admired was the facade of the great and ancient Gothic church of St. Mary,—which was reflected with such exactness that it appeared to be a daguerreotype design; so that all the lines and contours of the innumerable ornaments which cover this facade, were distinguished with ease.1846, editorial staff, “A City in the Air”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 2, Issue 13, page 101

Verb

daguerreotype (third-person singular simple present daguerreotypes, present participle daguerreotyping, simple past and past participle daguerreotyped)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To make a photograph using this process, to make a daguerreotype (of).
  2. (figuratively, obsolete, transitive) To describe or represent exactly or faithfully; depict.
    • [H]e scanned my countenance with a pair of fierce, blood-shot eyes that I knew would daguerreotype my appearance indellibly^([sic]) and faithfully upon his mind.1861, E[lsa] J[ane] Guerin, chapter III, in An Autobiography. Mountain Charley, […], Dubuque, Ia.: […] [F]or the author, →OCLC, pages 19–20

Forms of daguerreotype

Noun
pluraldaguerreotypes
Verb
third-person singular presentdaguerreotypes
present participledaguerreotyping
past participledaguerreotyped
pastdaguerreotyped

Origin of daguerreotype

From French daguerréotype. Named after French artist Louis Daguerre (1787–1851) who announced the process in 1839. Daguerre developed the process after some years of collaborations with French chemist Nicéphore Niépce.

Words formed from daguerreotype

Questions about daguerreotype

What does daguerreotype mean?
Daguerreotype means an early type of photograph created by exposing a silver surface which has previously been exposed to either iodine vapor or iodine and bromine vapors; such a photograph.
What part of speech is daguerreotype?
Daguerreotype can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce daguerreotype?
Daguerreotype is pronounced /dəˈɡɛɹ.(ɪ.)əʊˌtaɪp/ (UK).
What is the plural of daguerreotype?
The plural of daguerreotype is daguerreotypes.

Words near daguerreotype in the dictionary

  1. Dagu
  2. Daguan
  3. Dague
  4. Daguerrean
  5. Daguerreian
  6. daguerreotype
  7. daguerreotyped
  8. daguerreotyper
  9. daguerreotypers
  10. daguerreotypes
  11. daguerreotypic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: daguerreotype (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-daguerreotype.wav.

Cite this entry: “daguerreotype.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/daguerreotype. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.