silhouette

Syllables: sil·hou·etteUK/ˌsɪlʊˈɛt//ˌsɪluˈɛt/

silhouette noun: an artistic depiction, often of a person's profile, in the form of an outline without any other visual details, similar to a shadow, made by cutting a piece of black paper, filling in an outline with a solid colour (usually black), etc.

Noun

silhouette (plural silhouettes)

An artistic depiction, often of a person's profile, in the form of an outline without any other visual details, similar to a shadow, made by cutting a piece of black paper, filling in an outline with a solid colour (usually black), etc.
- She had a feeble pencil drawing of the vicarage in Dorsetshire, and silhouettes of her father and mother, which were hung up in the lodgings wherever she went.1860 January–June, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “In which Miss Prior is Kept at the Door”, in Lovel the Widower, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1861, →OCLC, page 60
- [A] portion of the John Boyd Thatcher^([sic]) collection of commissions, documents, autograph letters and portraits; a case containing silhouets of famous Colonial personages, a silhouet ring, some smoked silhouets, […]1907 April 4, “Colonial Relics”, in William Hayes Ward, editor, The Independent, volume LXII, number 3044, New York, N.Y.: The Independent, […], →OCLC, page 812, column 2
(broadly) A dark outline of someone or something seen against a brighter background.
- I could see a silhouette of a figure looking out from the window, but I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.
- All we could see were ghostly-looking silhouettes of ships gliding here and there through the clouds; and I am sure the coachman's remark was quite correct, that it was a pity the day was so misty.1843, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Belfast to the Causeway”, in The Irish Sketch Book, London; Glasgow: Collins’ Clear-type Press, →OCLC, page 60
(broadly) An outline of a garment as it appears on a wearer.
- A-line is a classic silhouette for dresses and skirts.
- Dresses have departed from the straight-line severity of last season and show great diversity of design. One may choose the semi-princess silhouet or the flared peplum, the bloused silhouet, the bolero or the caplet effects.1926 February 13, Elita Miller Lenz, “Feminine Frills [Fashion Highlights]”, in The Billboard: The Theatrical Digest and Show World Review, volume XXXVIII, number 7, Cincinnati, Oh.: The Billboard...
(figuratively) A brief written description of someone or something; an outline, a sketch.
- [A]t my elbow stood a tall man, young, though probably five or six years older than I—in other respects of an appearance the opposite to common-place; though just now, as I am not disposed to paint his portrait in detail, the reader must be content with the silhouette I have just thrown off; […]a. 1856 (date written), Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter III, in A[rthur] B[ell] Nicholls, editor, The Professor, a Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], published...

Verb

silhouette (third-person singular simple present silhouettes, present participle silhouetting, simple past and past participle silhouetted)

(reflexive, transitive, often passive voice) Often followed by against or upon: to depict (oneself or someone, or something) as a silhouette (noun sense 1 or noun sense 2.1); to project (oneself or someone, or something) upon a background, so as to be like a silhouette.
- We guided ourselves, by the fitful flashes of forked and sheet lightning combined, towards a ghostly point, whose deeper blackness silhouetted it against the shades.1876, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “To Sánga-Tánga and Back”, in Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo. […], part I (The Gaboon River and Gorilla Land), London: Sampson Low, Marston...
- [N]ot only the passing figure of the young girl was seen, but the dazzling green and gold of the hillside, and the far-off silhouetted crests of the Coast Range.1882, Bret Harte, “Flip: A California Romance. Chapter III.”, in Flip; and Found at Blazing Star, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 53
(intransitive) To appear as a silhouette.
- [T]he distant islands […] lay dark and massive across our path, their huge crowns silhouetting in clear-cut outlines against the eastern sky, […]1884 June, “The North Shore”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume LXIX, number CCCCIX, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 110, column 2

silhouette meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

silhouette in Hindi

artistic depiction in the form of an outline without any other visual details: छाया chāyā, रूपरेखा rūprekhā

silhouette in Tamil

வரி உரு, தோற்றம், நிழற்படம்

silhouette in Urdu

آدھا چہرا

silhouette in Malayalam

silhouette; The outline of a body visible against a bright background: നിഴൽ niḻal

More languagesFewer languages

silhouette in Kannada: ಛಾಯಾಚಿತ್ರ, ಛಾಯಾರೂಪ, ಪಾರ್ಶ್ವಚ್ಛಾಯಿ, ನೆರಳು ಬೊಂಬೆ
silhouette in Arabic: خَيَال ḵayāl, سَوَاد sawād
silhouette in Malay: siluet
silhouette in Indonesian: siluet
silhouette in Persian: سیلوئت silu'et
silhouette in Vietnamese: bóng, hình bóng

Examples of silhouette in a sentence

Entering the gate and passing the shrubs, the silhouette of a house rose to view; black, low, and rather long: but the guiding light shone nowhere.1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter II, in Jane Eyre. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […]...
Another second and I saw the black silhouette of the old Zulu raise its arm in mute salute, and Nyleptha was before us.1887, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “Before the Statue”, in Allan Quatermain […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 186:
At Stirling, we obtained a wonderful silhouette view of the Wallace Monument, and the dark line of the Ochil Hills, and the castle stood out clearly against the afterglow of the sunset.1950 January, Arthur F. Beckenham, “With British Railways to the Far North”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC...

All 40 example sentences with silhouette

Forms of silhouette

Noun
plural	silhouettes
alternative form	silhouet
Verb
third-person singular present	silhouettes
present participle	silhouetting
past participle	silhouetted
past	silhouetted

Plural of silhouette: silhouettes

Origin of silhouette

The noun is a unadapted borrowing from French silhouette, from the surname of Étienne de Silhouette (1709–1767), France’s Controller-General of Finances. It has been suggested that the word refers to one or more of the following: * De Silhouette’s penny-pinching policies which led to the French term à la Silhouette, applied to things perceived as austere or cheap, akin to an outline filled only with black. * The fact that de Silhouette only held the office of Controller-General of Finances for about eight months from 4 March to 21 November 1759. * De Silhouette’s outline portraits which he made to decorate his château at Bry-sur-Marne, Val-de-Marne. De Silhouette’s surname is a gallicized form of Basque Ziloeta or Zilhoeta (modern Basque Zulueta), from the local plural stem (see -ak) of zulo (“hole, pit; den, hiding place”), from Proto-Basque *zuLo (“hole”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Words formed from silhouette

Words that rhyme with silhouette

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about silhouette

What does silhouette mean?: Silhouette means an artistic depiction, often of a person's profile, in the form of an outline without any other visual details, similar to a shadow, made by cutting a piece of black paper, filling in an outline with a solid colour (usually black), etc.
What is silhouette in Hindi?: Silhouette in Hindi is छाया (chāyā), रूपरेखा (rūprekhā). See Silhouette meaning in Hindi.
How do you use silhouette in a sentence?: Entering the gate and passing the shrubs, the silhouette of a house rose to view; black, low, and rather long: but the guiding light shone nowhere.
What part of speech is silhouette?: Silhouette can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce silhouette?: Silhouette is pronounced /ˌsɪlʊˈɛt/ (UK).
What is the plural of silhouette?: The plural of silhouette is silhouettes.

Words near silhouette in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: silhouette (page history and authors); silhouette (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); silhouette (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); നിഴൽ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); silhouette (Kannada 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-silhouette.ogg.

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