Panoramic

How to spell panoramic

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce panoramic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does panoramic mean?

1. adjectiveOffering a wide, unbroken view of a broad surrounding area.

Panoramic in a sentence

• The hotel room offered a panoramic view across the harbour.

• The new camera lens captures a panoramic shot in a single frame.

Where does panoramic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word grows out of 'panorama', a deliberate coinage from the late 1700s built from two Greek elements: pan, meaning 'all', and horama, meaning 'a view' or 'a sight' (itself from horan, 'to see'). The Irish painter Robert Barker invented the term around 1789 to advertise his huge cylindrical paintings that surrounded the viewer with an unbroken all-around scene, literally an 'all-view'. From the noun, English formed the adjective 'panoramic' in the early 1800s to describe anything offering such a sweeping, wide view. The same horama root sits behind 'diorama' and 'cyclorama', while pan- recurs in everyday words like 'pandemic' and 'panorama' itself. The single 'n' and the unstressed 'a' in the middle (pan-o-RAM-ic) are the usual spelling snags, since neither letter is emphasised when the word is spoken.

How the word is built

• pan- (Greek: all)
• -orama (from horama: a view, a sight)
• -ic (adjective suffix)