caption

caption — noun

1. a few printed words placed beneath or beside a photograph, drawing, or diagram f

1.nounB1
Definition

a few printed words placed beneath or beside a photograph, drawing, or diagram found on a page or screen, which tell the viewer who or what is in the image or what is happening.

Example

The newspaper printed a photo of the mayor with a brief caption underneath.

collocation: 'a brief caption underneath'

Priya read the caption under the old family photograph and recognised her grandmother.

collocation: 'caption under [noun]'

Common collocations
  • photo caption
  • newspaper caption
  • brief caption
  • caption underneath
  • caption below the picture
Synonyms
  • description

    broader term; a caption is one type of description, but description can be much longer

  • label

    shorter and more functional than a caption; often a single word or short phrase

  • legend

    can refer to an explanatory caption, but more commonly means a map key or a traditional story

Grammar Patterns

caption + of + noun phrase

under + a/the + caption

Usage Note

Often appears in the fixed phrase 'under the caption' when referring to the location of the text relative to the image. You read or look at a caption; you do not normally 'listen' to one.

Common Mistakes

I checked the subtitle under the photo.
I checked the caption under the photo.
'subtitle' is for video dialogue text; 'caption' is for still-image descriptions.
The picture had a long headline.
The picture had a long caption.
'headline' is a newspaper article title; 'caption' describes an image.

caption — verb

Word family

  • captioning
    nounB2
  • captioning
    adjB2
  • captioned
    adjB2
  • captioner
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words refer to text that explains or labels something, but each has a distinct medium and function. 'Caption' (圖片說明) is the text placed under a still image — a photograph, drawing, or diagram — in a book, magazine, or website. 'Subtitle' (字幕) refers to text overlaid on a video or film screen, usually translating or transcribing dialogue; it moves with the timeline of the media. 'Headline' (標題) is the large-type title of a newspaper or magazine article, designed to grab attention rather than to describe a visual. 'Legend' (圖例) can occasionally mean a caption but more commonly names the key that explains symbols on a map, graph, or chart. A caption tells you what you are seeing; a headline tells you what you are about to read; a subtitle tells you what people are saying; a legend tells you what symbols mean.

caption ↗subtitleheadline ↗legend ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • photo caption
  • picture caption
  • image caption
  • newspaper caption
  • caption text

Adverbs

  • briefly captioned
  • simply captioned
  • incorrectly captioned

Phrases

  • under the caption
  • add a caption
  • read the caption
  • write a caption

Prepositions

  • under a caption
  • with a caption
  • in the caption

Etymology

LatinEnglish

The word 'caption' entered English in the late 1300s from Latin 'captio' (a taking, seizing), itself from 'capere' (to take, seize). In medieval law it referred to the act of taking someone into custody or the statement recording when and where a document was legally executed. By the 1700s it had come to mean a heading or title on a document. The modern sense — text that 'captures' or explains an image — emerged in the early 1900s with the rise of photo-journalism, as editors needed a word for the line that 'takes' or 'catches' the meaning of a picture.