What does "portraiture" mean?

A portrait; a likeness; a painted resemblance; hence, that which is copied from some example or model.

What is a synonym for "portraiture"?

Common synonyms include: portrayal, acrylic painting, alphabet, art, blueprint, cameo.

Pronounced //ˈpɔː(ɹ)tɹɪtjʊə(ɹ)//.

//ˈpɔː(ɹ)tɹɪtjʊə(ɹ)// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Noun

1
A portrait; a likeness; a painted resemblance; hence, that which is copied from some example or model. countable, uncountable
"For, by the image of my cause, I see / The portraiture of his."
2
the activity of making portraits wordnet
3
The art of painting or photographing portraits. countable, uncountable
4
a word picture of a person's appearance and character wordnet
5
A portrait (or portraits considered as a group). countable, uncountable

"For, by the image of my cause, I see / The portraiture of his."

From Middle English portraiture, portrature, purtraiture, pourtreture, from Old French portraiture, pourtraiture and Anglo-Norman purtraiture.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.