portray
Syllables: por·tray/pɔːˈtɹeɪ̯/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/poːˈtɹæ̝ɪ̯/
portray verb: to paint or draw the likeness of.
Verb
portray (third-person singular simple present portrays, present participle portraying, simple past and past participle portrayed)
- To paint or draw the likeness of.
- I will portray a king on horseback.
- To represent by an image or look.
- Upon his browes was pourtraid vgly death,
And in his eies the furies of his heart,
That ſhine as Comets, menacing reueng,
And caſts a pale complexion on his cheeks.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
- Upon his browes was pourtraid vgly death,
- To describe in words; to convey.
- To play a role; to depict a character, person, situation, or event.
- For my next movie, I will be portraying Shakespeare.
- To adorn.
portray meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
portray in Tamil
- சித்தரித்தல்
portray in Urdu
- چربہ اتارنا, نقاشی کرنا, تصویر بنانا
portray in Bengali
- চিত্রিত করা, অভিনয় করা
portray in Telugu
- to portray, to depict
- చిత్రించు citriñcu
More languagesFewer languages
- portray in Malayalam
- ചിത്രംവരയ്ക്കുക, ചിത്രീകരിക്കുക, വർണ്ണിക്കുക, പടമെഴുതുക
Examples of portray in a sentence
- Despite what some cartoons portray, no humans were around when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
- Arwen is portrayed as a valiant swordswoman in the Lord of the Rings films.
- The audio contained some spelling pronunciations, such as when "sieve" was mistakenly portrayed as rhyming with "leave".
Forms of portray
| third-person singular present | portrays |
|---|---|
| present participle | portraying |
| past participle | portrayed |
| past | portrayed |
| alternative form (obsolete) | pourtray |
Origin of portray
From Middle English portray, from Middle French portraire.
Words formed from portray
Words that rhyme with portray
Questions about portray
- What does portray mean?
- Portray means to paint or draw the likeness of.
- What is portray in Tamil?
- Portray in Tamil is சித்தரித்தல். See Portray meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is portray?
- Portray is a verb.
- How do you pronounce portray?
- Portray is pronounced /pɔːˈtɹeɪ̯/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of portray?
- The past tense of portray is portrayed.
Words near portray in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: portray (page history and authors); portray (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); portray (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); portray (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); చిత్రించు (Telugu) (page history and authors); portray (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-portray.wav.
Cite this entry: “portray.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/portray. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.