photobomb

/ˈfəʊtəʊˌbɒm/

photobomb verb: to unexpectedly appear in a photograph, especially so as to ruin the picture.

Verb

photobomb (third-person singular simple present photobombs, present participle photobombing, simple past and past participle photobombed)

(transitive) To unexpectedly appear in a photograph, especially so as to ruin the picture.
- Edmonton Eskimos fans taunt a Calgary Stampeders mascot who photobombed their group photo. [image caption]2010 September 6, Renato Gandia, “Labour Day rivalry rekindled among fans”, in Calgary Sun, archived from the original on 10 Sep 2010
- Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet snuck into a few snapshots too, photobombing some of the other celebs and making funny faces.2011 May 31, Ted Casablanca, John Boone, “Caught! Is Matthew Morrison Too Hot to Handle?”, in E! Online

photobomb (plural photobombs)

An act of photobombing.
- His^([sic]) person who uploaded the video, who appears to be Ellis' father, wrote in his description that the photobomb was not the only surprise welcome they staged that day.2012 March 27, “Best photobomb EVER! Returning Navy sailor surprises grandmother by jumping in a photo on her birthday”, in Daily Mail
- Twitter was also filled with comments about the Queen photobomb.2012 August 1, Lucy Carne, “John Coates' son photobombs the Queen at London Olympics Opening Ceremony”, in The Telegraph, Sydney
A photo containing someone or something that is photobombing.
- Athletes are celebrated just for competing. Russian gymnast Anna Pavlova, who recorded an imperfect 0.00 for one of her vault attempts, could try to land a photobomb of herself mugging in the background of all those photos that will be taken of Phelps lugging around his gold.2008 August 21, Burt Constable, “Phelps fatigue, feuds and flaps mean Olympics can't end soon enough”, in Daily Herald
- Today, the photo can be labelled a photobomb, which implies a narrative of surreptitious sabotage, connects the stingray to a whole tribe of obnoxious pranksters, and makes the ray look like his smile might contain a hint of frat-boyish dissolution.2012 October 9, Andrea Denhoed, “A Few Words About The Stingray Photobomb”, in The New Yorker

Photobomb

Verb
third-person singular present	photobombs
present participle	photobombing
past participle	photobombed
past	photobombed
Noun
plural	photobombs

From photo + bomb.

From photobomb, in reference to Basil liking photography and Aubrey's heated, "explosive" personality. Compare Sunburn.

What does photobomb mean?: Photobomb means to unexpectedly appear in a photograph, especially so as to ruin the picture.
What is photobomb in Malay?: Photobomb in Malay is tunafoto. See Photobomb meaning in Malay.
What part of speech is photobomb?: Photobomb can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce photobomb?: Photobomb is pronounced /ˈfəʊtəʊˌbɒm/.
What is the past tense of photobomb?: The past tense of photobomb is photobombed.

Adapted from Wiktionary: photobomb (page history and authors); Photobomb (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-photobomb.ogg.

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