Meaning & use
pictorial
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Using pictures or images, or relating to them, to show or explain something.
Grammar: Usually comes before a noun: a pictorial guide.
Patterns
- pictorial record of something
- pictorial guide to something
The museum has a pictorial history of the town.
She prefers a pictorial map to a list of directions.
Children learn quickly from pictorial instructions.
nouncountableold-fashioned
A magazine or special section that tells its story mostly through photographs or drawings.
Grammar: Countable: a pictorial, two pictorials. Often found in older publishing contexts.
Patterns
- a pictorial of something
The newspaper ran a Sunday pictorial of the royal tour.
He collected old railway pictorials from the 1950s.
The magazine published a pictorial on the new bridge.
Word forms
| plural | pictorials |
|---|
Common combinations
- pictorial record
- The album is a pictorial record of the trip.
- pictorial history
- They published a pictorial history of the school.
- pictorial map
- A pictorial map hung in the lobby.
- pictorial representation
- The chart gives a pictorial representation of the data.
Synonyms and how they differ
- illustrated
- Illustrated describes anything that includes pictures, while pictorial suggests the pictures carry the main message.
- graphic
- Graphic stresses clear visual design, and can also mean vividly detailed, which pictorial does not.
- visual
- Visual is broader and means related to seeing, not necessarily pictures.
Opposites
Word family
- picture noun
- the root image
- pictorially adverb
- in a way that uses pictures
- pictorialist noun
- an artist who works in an expressive pictorial style
Commonly confused: pictorial or picturesque?
pictorial vs picturesque
Picturesque means charming or pretty enough to be in a picture, while pictorial means using or relating to pictures.
Practice
The guidebook gave a ___ account of the city: almost every page was full of photographs and drawings, with little text.
Choose one answer.
Pictorial means conveyed through pictures. Picturesque describes a scenic or pretty place, not a way of presenting information.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pictorial”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.