portrait

See also: Portrait

English

The Mona Lisa, a portrait.

Portrait layout

Alternative forms

• pourtraict (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle French portraict, pourtraict, nominal use of the past participle of portraire (“portray”), from Latin prōtrahō.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːtɹɪt/, (rare) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːtɹeɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɹtɹɪt/, (rare) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɹtɹeɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

portrait (plural portraits)

1. A painting or other picture of a person, especially the head and shoulders.
   • Sir J. Reynolds

     In portraits, the grace, and, we may add, the likeness, consists more in the general air than in the exact similitude of every feature.

2. (figuratively) 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.

3. (computing, printing) A print orientation where the vertical sides are longer than the horizontal sides.

Related terms

• portray

Translations

painting of a person

• Albanian: portret m
• Arabic: صورة (ar) f (ṣūra), بورتريه f (burtríyya)
• Armenian: դիմանկար (dimankar), պատկեր (patker)
• Asturian: retratu m
• Azeri: şəkil (az)
• Basque: argazkia (eu)
• Belarusian: партрэт m (partrét)
• Breton: poltred (br) m
• Bulgarian: портрет (bg) m (portrét)
• Catalan: retrat m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 肖像 (zh) (xiàoxiàng)

• Czech: portrét (cs) m, podobizna f
• Danish: portræt (da) n, (archaic) kontrafej (da) n
• Dutch: portret (nl) n
• Erzya: чаманеявкс (čamanejavks)
• Esperanto: portreto
• Finnish: muotokuva (fi), potretti
• French: portrait (fr) m
• Galician: retrato m
• Georgian: სურათი (surat’i)
• German: Portrait (de) n, Porträt (de) n
• Greek: προσωπογραφία (el) f (prosopografía), πορτραίτο (el) n (portraíto)
• Hungarian: arckép (hu), portré (hu)
• Indonesian: potret (id)
• Irish: portráid f

• Italian: ritratto (it) m
• Japanese: 画像 (がぞう, gazō), 肖像 (ja) (しょうぞう, shōzō)
• Kazakh: портрет (portret)
• Korean: 그림 (ko) (geurim), 초상 (ko) (chosang)
• Luxembourgish: Portrait
• Macedonian: портрет m (portrét)
• Malay: potret
• Persian: تصویر (fa) (tasvir), پرتره (fa) (portre)
• Polish: portret (pl) m
• Portuguese: retrato (pt) m
• Romanian: portret (ro) n
• Russian: портрет (ru) m (portrét)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: портрет m

  Roman: portret m

• Slovak: portrét m
• Slovene: portret (sl) m
• Spanish: retrato (es) m
• Swahili: picha (sw)
• Tagalog: ritrato
• Turkish: portre (tr)
• Ukrainian: портрет m (portrét)
• Vietnamese: ảnh chân dung, hình ảnh (vi)
• Volapük: pöträt (vo)

an accurate depiction of a person, a mood, etc.

• Catalan: retrat m
• Georgian: პორტრეტი (portreti)
• German: Portrait (de) n, Porträt (de) n
• Greek: πορτραίτο (el) n (portraíto)
• Macedonian: опис m (ópis), приказ m (príkaz), слика f (slíka)

• Russian: изображение (ru) n (izobražénije), описание (ru) n (opisánije)
• Serbo-Croatian: portret m
• Spanish: retrato (es) m
• Vietnamese: điển hình (vi)

print mode

• Greek: κατακόρυφος (el) (katakóryfos) προσανατολισμός (el) (prosanatolismós) (εκτύπωσης-χαρτιού)
• Irish: portráid f

• Russian: портретная ориентация f (portrétnaja oriɛntácija)

Antonyms

• (print mode or selection): landscape
• (print mode or selection): profile

Verb

portrait (third-person singular simple present portraits, present participle portraiting, simple past and past participle portraited)

1. (obsolete) To portray; to draw.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Adjective

portrait (not comparable)

1. Representing the actual features of an individual; not ideal.

   a portrait bust; a portrait statue

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɔʁ.tʁɛ/

• Audio (France)

  (file)

Noun

portrait m (plural portraits)

1. portrait
2. description (of a person or things)

External links

• "portrait" in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).