Pictorial

How to spell pictorial

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce pictorial

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pictorial mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to or expressed through pictures, illustrations, or photographs.
2. nounAn illustrated periodical or section made up mainly of pictures.

Pictorial in a sentence

• adjective

  The museum produced a pictorial guide to the exhibition.

• noun

  The newspaper ran a six-page pictorial on the coronation.

• adjective

  The report included a pictorial summary of the year's milestones.

• noun

  He collected every wartime pictorial his grandfather had saved.

Where does pictorial come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb pingere, meaning 'to paint', which gave the noun pictor, 'a painter', and pictura, 'a painting'. From pictor the Late Latin adjective pictorius was formed, meaning 'relating to a painter or to painting', and English adopted it in the early 1600s, fitting it with the familiar English ending -ial to produce 'pictorial'. The sense broadened from purely painted images to anything expressed through pictures, illustrations, or photographs, which is why a magazine packed with images came to be called a pictorial. The same pingere root sits quietly inside everyday relatives such as 'picture', 'depict', and even 'pigment', the coloured substance a painter would once have mixed. Remembering that the word is built on pict-, the painted thing, helps explain why it is spelled with that 'ct' cluster rather than the softer sound the ear might suggest.

How the word is built

• pict- (from Latin pingere, to paint)
• -or (agent, as in pictor, a painter)
• -ial (adjective/noun suffix)