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 (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.

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
• Azeri: şəkil (az)
• Basque: argazkia (eu)
• Belarusian: партрэ́т m (partrét)
• Breton: poltred (br) m
• Bulgarian: портре́т (bg) m (portrét)
• 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)
• 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)
• Latvian: portrets m
• Lithuanian: portretas m
• Luxembourgish: Portrait
• Macedonian: портре́т m (portrét)
• Malay: potret
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: portrett n

  Nynorsk: portrett n

• Persian: تصویر‏‎ (fa) (tasvir), پرتره‏‎ (fa) (portre)
• Polish: portret (pl) m
• Portuguese: retrato (pt) m
• Romanian: portret (ro) n
• Russian: портре́т (ru) m (portrét)
• 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
• Turkish: portre (tr)
• Ukrainian: портре́т m (portrét)
• Vietnamese: ảnh chân dung, hình ảnh (vi)
• Volapük: pöträt (vo)

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

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

print mode

• Dutch: staand (nl)
• Greek: κατακόρυφος (el) (katakóryfos) προσανατολισμός (el) (prosanatolismós) (εκτύπωσης-χαρτιού)
• 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.

   (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)

Derived terms

• portrait craché

Further reading

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

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Norman

Noun

portrait m (plural portraits)

1. (Jersey) portrait