portrait
UK/ˈpɔːtɹeɪt//ˈpɔɹtɹət/
portrait noun: a painting or other picture of a person, especially the head and shoulders.
Noun
portrait (countable and uncountable, plural portraits)
- A painting or other picture of a person, especially the head and shoulders.
- In portraits, the grace, and, we may add, the likeness, consists more in the general air than in the exact similitude of every feature.a. 1792, Joshua Reynolds, Discourses on Painting and the Fine Arts
- An accurate depiction of a person, a mood, etc.
- The author painted a good portrait of urban life in New York in his latest book.
- She showed me her portrait, written by herself. I only remember what she states of her mouth, which, she says, was not only beautiful and red, but had a thousand little natural airs and graces not to be found in any other mouth. Oh, I must not forget her figure, which, she assured the reader, was...1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 232–233
- A print orientation where the vertical sides are longer than the horizontal sides.
Verb
portrait (third-person singular simple present portraits, present participle portraiting, simple past and past participle portraited)
- To portray; to draw.
- But all as in most exquisite pictures, they vse to blaze and portrait, not only the daintie lineaments or beautie, but also round about it to shadowe the rude thickets and craggy clifts1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC
- Methinkes yᵉ picture of Sᵗ George fighting with yᵉ Dragon hath some resemblance of Sᵗ Michael fighting with the Devil, who is pourtrated like a Dragon.1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 69
Adjective
portrait (not comparable)
- Representing the actual features of an individual; not ideal.
- a portrait bust; a portrait statue
portrait meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
portrait in Hindi
- painting of a person
- चित्र citra, तस्वीर tasvīr
portrait in Tamil
- உருவப்படம், நீளவாக்குத் தோற்றம், பிரதிமை, ஒரு செவ்வக கோப்பின் தளவமைப்பு
portrait in Urdu
- painting of a person
- تَصْوِیر tasvīr, چِتْر citr
portrait in Bengali
- painting of a person
- প্রতিকৃতি protikriti
More languagesFewer languages
- portrait in Telugu
- పోర్ట్రెయిట్, చిత్తరువు
- portrait in Malayalam
- ഫോട്ടോ, വർണ്ണന, വിവരണം, ഛായാപടം
- portrait in Kannada
- ವರ್ಣಚಿತ್ರ, ಭಾವಚಿತ್ರ, ರೇಖಾಚಿತ್ರ, ಮೋಹಕ ವರ್ಣನೆ
- portrait in Punjabi
- ਪੋਰਟਰੇਟ, ਪੋਰਟਰੇਟ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
- portrait in Gujarati
- તસવીર tasvīr
- portrait in Odia
- ପ୍ରତିକୃତି
- portrait in Sanskrit
- चित्राकृति citrākṛti
- portrait in Pashto
- تصوير taswir
- portrait in Tagalog
- ritrato
- portrait in Arabic
- صُورَة ṣūra, بُورْتْرِيَّة burtriyya
- portrait in Malay
- potret
- portrait in Indonesian
- potret
- portrait in Thai
- ภาพเหมือน pâap-mʉ̌ʉan
- portrait in Vietnamese
- chân dung
- portrait in Myanmar
- ပုံတူကား pumtuka:
Examples of portrait in a sentence
- His portraits looked stiff and formal but his candids showed life being lived.
- The Temple at Jerusalem preferred Tyrian shekels, since even with Ba'al's portrait they bore highly refined silver.
- Van Eyck signed his portrait of the Arnolfinis slapdash in the center of the painting.
Antonyms of portrait
Forms of portrait
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | portraits |
| alternative form (obsolete) | pourtraict |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | portraits |
| present participle | portraiting |
| past participle | portraited |
| past | portraited |
Origin of portrait
From Middle French portraict, pourtraict, nominal use of the past participle of portraire (“portray”), from Latin prōtrahō (< prō- + trahō). Compare typologically English drawing.
Words formed from portrait
Phrases with portrait
Questions about portrait
- What does portrait mean?
- Portrait means a painting or other picture of a person, especially the head and shoulders.
- What is portrait in Hindi?
- Portrait in Hindi is चित्र (citra), तस्वीर (tasvīr). See Portrait meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is portrait?
- Portrait can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce portrait?
- Portrait is pronounced /ˈpɔːtɹeɪt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of portrait?
- The plural of portrait is portraits.
Words near portrait in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: portrait (page history and authors); portrait (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); portrait (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); portrait (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); portrait (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); portrait (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); તસવીર (Gujarati) (page history and authors); portrait (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: En-us-portrait.ogg.
Cite this entry: “portrait.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/portrait. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.