picture
pic·ture/ˈpɪk.t͡ʃə/noun, verb
picture is spelled P-I-C-T-U-R-E, 2 syllables: pic·ture. The wrong spelling people search most is picutre: about 120 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 294 of all searches for the word. Picture is a noun meaning “A representation of anything (as a person, a landscape, a building) upon canvas, paper, or other surface, by…”. The plural of picture is pictures.
How many letters and syllables are in picture?
| Letters | 7: P-I-C-T-U-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: pic·ture |
| In writing | 135 times per million words; the 770th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, picutre, about 120 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell picture?
Picture is spelled P-I-C-T-U-R-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 291 of the searches for picture in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is picture?
Picture appears 135 times per million words in written English, the 770th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce picture?
- UK /ˈpɪk.t͡ʃə/
- UK [ˈpʰɪk.t͡ʃə]
- /ˈpək.t͡ʃə/
Picture has 2 syllables, split pic·ture in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-picture.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with picture
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of picture
- pictures plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- pickchah
- pickchuh
- pitcha
- pitchah
- pitcher
- pitchuh
- pitchur
- picturing participle, present
- pictured participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does picture mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A representation of anything (as a person, a landscape, a building) upon canvas, paper, or other surface, by drawing, painting, printing, photography, etc.
- 2
An image; a representation as in the imagination.
- 3
A painting.
There was a picture hanging above the fireplace.
- 4
A photograph.
I took a picture of the church.
- 5
IndiadatedA motion picture.
Casablanca is my all-time favorite picture.
- 6
informal("the pictures") Cinema (as a form of entertainment).
Let's go to the pictures.
- 7
A paragon, a perfect example or specimen (of a category).
She's the very picture of health.
- 8
An attractive sight.
The garden is a real picture at this time of year.
verb
- 1
To represent in or with a picture.
- 2
To imagine or envision.
- 3
To depict or describe vividly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Picture in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | image , photo , cinéma |
| German | Bild, Abbildung, Abbild, Gemälde , Foto , fotographieren |
| Portuguese | figura, imagem , fotografia, foto , cinema |
| Spanish | imagen , foto, fotografía , cine |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does picture come from?
Inherited from Middle English picture, from Latin pictūra (“the art of painting, a painting”), from pingō (“to paint”). Doublet of pictura.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).