Other forms: captions
A caption is the line of text under a photo saying what it shows. Write a caption, photo caption, caption competition.
It is one of the most-read parts of any page — readers look at the picture and then the caption before the article — which is why editors take them seriously. Captions on video are the text of the speech, and are distinguished from subtitles by including sounds. Note that the Latin means a taking.
1nouncaptionThe line of text under a photo saying what it shows.
“The caption under the photo named everyone in the picture from left to right.”
caption is a line of text.
Latin captio means a taking or seizing, from capere. Capture, captive and receive come from the same taking.
Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Latin
captiō — deception, fraud
English, today
caption
Built from
Borrowed from Latin captiō (“deception, fraud”), from the past participle of capiō (“to take, to seize”) (English capture). Compare Middle English capcioun (“seizure, capture”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA