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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːtɹɪt/, (rare) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːtɹeɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɹtɹət/, (rare) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔɹtɹeɪt/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈpoʊɹtɹət/, (rare) IPA^(key): /ˈpoʊɹtɹeɪt/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈpoətɹɪt/, (rare) IPA^(key): /ˈpoətɹeɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

portrait (countable and uncountable, plural portraits)

1. (countable) A painting or other picture of a person, especially the head and shoulders.
   • a. 1792, Joshua Reynolds, Discourses on Painting and the Fine Arts

     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. (countable, 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.

   • 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Francesca Carrara, volume 1, pages 232-233:

     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 the best-made and the finest that could be seen: nothing could be more regular, more graceful, or more easy.

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

Antonyms

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

Related terms

• portray

Translations

painting of a person

• Albanian: portret (sq) m
• Arabic: صُورَة‎ (ar) f (ṣūra), بُورْتْرِيَّة‎ f (burtriyya)
• Armenian: դիմանկար (hy) (dimankar), պատկեր (hy) (patker)
• Asturian: retratu m
• Azerbaijani: şəkil (az), portret
• Basque: argazkia (eu)
• Belarusian: партрэ́т m (partrét)
• Bengali: প্রতিকৃতি (prôtikriti)
• Breton: poltred (br) m
• Bulgarian: портре́т (bg) m (portrét)
• Burmese: ပုံတူကား (my) (pumtuka:)
• Catalan: retrat (ca) 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
• Estonian: portree (et)
• Finnish: muotokuva (fi), potretti
• French: portrait (fr) m
• Galician: retrato m
• Georgian: სურათი (surati), პორტრეტი (ṗorṭreṭi)
• German: Portrait (de) n, Porträt (de) n
• Greek: προσωπογραφία (el) f (prosopografía), πορτραίτο (el) n (portraíto)
• Hebrew: דְּיוֹקָן‎ (he) m (dyoqán)
• Hindi: चित्र (hi) m (citra), तस्वीर (hi) f (tasvīr)
• Hungarian: arckép (hu), portré (hu), képmás (hu)
• Indonesian: potret (id)
• Irish: portráid f
• Italian: ritratto (it) m
• Japanese: 画像 (ja) (がぞう, gazō), 肖像 (ja) (しょうぞう, shōzō)
• Kazakh: портрет (portret)
• Korean: 그림 (ko) (geurim), 초상 (ko) (chosang), 초상화 (ko) (chosanghwa)

• Kyrgyz: портрет (ky) (portret)
• Latvian: portrets m
• Lithuanian: portretas m
• Luxembourgish: Portrait
• Macedonian: портре́т m (portrét)
• Malay: potret
• Mongolian: хөрөг (mn) (khörög)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: portrett n, portrettmaleri n

  Nynorsk: portrett n

• Pashto: تصوير‎ (ps) m (taswír)
• Persian: تصویر‎ (fa) (tasvir), پرتره‎ (fa) (portre)
• Plautdietsch: Petrett n
• Polish: portret (pl) m
• Portuguese: retrato (pt) m
• Romanian: portret (ro) n
• Russian: портре́т (ru) m (portrét)
• Sanskrit: चित्राकृति (sa) f (citrākṛti)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: портрет m

  Roman: portret (sh) m

• Slovak: portrét m
• Slovene: portret (sl) m
• Spanish: retrato (es) m
• Swahili: picha (sw)
• Swedish: porträtt (sv) n, avbildning (sv) c
• Tagalog: ritrato
• Tajik: портрет (tg) (portret), тасвир (tg) (tasvir)
• Thai: ภาพเหมือน (pâap-mʉ̌ʉan)
• Turkish: portre (tr)
• Turkmen: portret
• Ukrainian: портре́т m (portrét)
• Urdu: تصویر‎ (ur) f (tasvīr), چتر‎ m (citra)
• Uyghur: پورترېت‎ (portrët)
• Uzbek: portret (uz)
• Vietnamese: ảnh chân dung, hình ảnh (vi)
• Volapük: pöträt (vo)
• Yiddish: פּאָרטרעט‎ (portret)

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

• Bulgarian: изображение (bg) n (izobraženie)
• Catalan: retrat (ca) m
• Georgian: პორტრეტი (ṗorṭreṭi)
• German: Portrait (de) n, Porträt (de) n
• Greek: πορτραίτο (el) n (portraíto)
• Italian: ritratto (it) m
• Macedonian: опис m (opis), приказ m (prikaz), слика f (slika)

• Polish: portret (pl) m
• Russian: изображе́ние (ru) n (izobražénije), описа́ние (ru) n (opisánije)
• Serbo-Croatian: portret (sh) m
• Spanish: retrato (es) m
• Vietnamese: điển hình (vi)

print mode

• Bulgarian: вертикална ориентация f (vertikalna orientacija)
• Dutch: staand (nl)
• French: portrait (fr) m
• German: Hochformat n
• Greek: κατακόρυφος (el) (katakóryfos) προσανατολισμός (el) (prosanatolismós) (εκτύπωσης-χαρτιού)
• Hungarian: álló (hu)

• Irish: portráid f
• Italian: ritratto (it) m
• Russian: портре́тная ориента́ция f (portrétnaja orijentácija)

Verb

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

1. (obsolete) To portray; to draw.
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], OCLC 606515406; reprinted as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender […], London: John C. Nimmo, […], 1890, OCLC 890162479:

     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 clifts

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. (printing) portrait (format)
3. description (of a person or things)

Antonyms

• (2) paysage

Derived terms

• portrait craché
• refaire le portrait

Descendants

• → Dutch: portret
  • Afrikaans: portret
  • Petjo: potrèt
  • → Indonesian: potret
  • → Papiamentu: portrèt, pòtrèt, pòrtrèt, portret
• → German: Porträt
• → Turkish: portre

Further reading

• “portrait”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Norman

Noun

portrait m (plural portraits)

1. (Jersey) portrait