Depict

How to spell depict

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce depict

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does depict mean?

1. verbTo show or represent something in a picture, or to describe it in words.

Depict in a sentence

• The mural will depict scenes from the town's history.

• The report tries to depict the company as financially stable.

Where does depict come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin depingere, meaning 'to paint' or 'to portray', formed from de- (used here as an intensifier, roughly 'fully' or 'down') and pingere, 'to paint'. The past participle of pingere was pictus, and it is that form that gives English the spelling with the silent-looking 'ct' rather than a 'g'. The same Latin root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'picture', 'pigment', and 'pictorial', all tied to the idea of putting colour onto a surface. English adopted depict in the early 1400s, at first meaning literally to paint or draw, before it broadened to cover describing or representing something in words as well as in images. Remembering that depict shares its painting root with 'picture' helps fix the 'pict' spelling in place.

How the word is built

• de- (down, fully)
• pict (from pingere, pictus: to paint)