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snapshot

UK/ˈsnæpʃɒt/US/ˈsnæpʃɒt/
nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,189 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: snapshots

A snapshot is a quick informal picture taken without fuss. Take a snapshot, holiday snapshots, a snapshot of the family.

The word came from shooting: a snap shot was a quick shot taken without aiming, and photography borrowed it. Figuratively a snapshot is a picture of how things stand at one moment — a snapshot of the economy.

Tysto · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of snapshot

  1. 1nounsnapshotA quick informal photograph.B2+

    “She keeps an old snapshot of her parents on the beach in her wallet.”

snapshot is a photograph.

Where it comes from

Snap plus shot, from a hunting term for a quick shot fired without careful aim.

From snap + shot.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Photography & Film

Practise this word

snapshot in the wild

  • A snapshot is a photograph that is "shot" spontaneously and quickly, most often without artistic or journalistic intent and usually made with a relatively cheap and compact camera.

    Snapshot (photography)

  • Common snapshot subjects include the events of everyday life, often portraying family members, friends, pets, children playing, birthday parties and other celebrations, sunsets, tourist attractions and the like.

    Snapshot (photography)

  • A snapshot can also be saved permanently to Venti.

    Fossil (file system)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.