a picture is worth a thousand words

English

Alternative forms

• a picture paints a thousand words

Etymology

Reportedly first used in Printer's Ink (December, 1921), while commenting that graphics can tell a story as effectively as a large amount of descriptive text.

Proverb

a picture is worth a thousand words

1. A visualisation is a better description than a verbal description.

Translations

visualisation is better than verbal description

• Arabic: صُورَة تُسَاوِي أَلْف كَلِمَة‎ (ṣūra(t) tusāwī ʔalf kalima)
• Catalan: una imatge val més que mil paraules
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 百聞不如一見／百闻不如一见 (zh) (bǎi wén bùrú yī jiàn), 一幅畫能畫出千言萬語／一幅画能画出千言万语 (yī fú huà néng huà chū qiānyánwànyǔ)

• Danish: et billede siger mere end tusind ord
• Dutch: een afbeelding zegt meer dan duizend woorden
• Finnish: yksi kuva kertoo enemmän kuin tuhat sanaa
• French: une image vaut mille mots (fr)
• Georgian: ასჯერ გაგონილს ერთხელ ნანახი ჯობიაო (asǯer gagonils ertxel nanaxi ǯobiao)
• German: ein Bild sagt mehr als tausend Worte (de)
• Italian: un'immagine vale più di mille parole
• Japanese: 百聞は一見に如かず (ja) (ひゃくぶんはいっけんにしかず, hyakubun wa ikken ni shikazu)
• Korean: 백문불여일견(百聞不如一見) (ko) (baengmun buryeo ilgyeon)
• Macedonian: една слика вреди илјада збора (edna slika vredi iljada zbora)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: et bilde sier mer enn tusen ord

  Nynorsk: eit bilde seier meir enn tusen ord

• Polish: jeden obraz jest wart więcej niż tysiąc słów
• Portuguese: uma imagem vale mais que mil palavras
• Romanian: o pictură spune mai mult decât o mie de vorbe
• Russian: лу́чше оди́н раз уви́деть, чем сто раз услы́шать (ru) (lúčše odín raz uvídetʹ, čem sto raz uslýšatʹ)
• Slovene: slika pove več kot tisoč besed
• Spanish: una imagen vale más que mil palabras
• Swedish: en bild säger mer än tusen ord
• Turkish: bir resim bin kelimeye bedeldir
• Vietnamese: trăm nghe không bằng mắt thấy
• Zazaki: yo resım hendê hezar çekuyo