caption

noun cap·tion \ ˈkap-shən \

|Updated on: 7 Aug 2018

Examples: caption in a Sentence

Definition of caption

1 : the part of a legal document that shows where, when, and by what authority it was taken, found, or executed

2 a : the heading especially of an article or document : title

b : the explanatory comment or designation accompanying a pictorial illustration

read the caption for the names of the people in the picture

c : a movie or television show subtitle

—

captionless

play \-ləs\ adjective

See caption defined for English-language learners

See caption defined for kids

Examples of caption in a Sentence

The caption on the picture says “This year's contest winners.”
for the school yearbook, funny captions were written for snapshots showing a typical day at school

Recent Examples of caption from the Web

The simple caption thanked fans for the birthday messages—and also subtly acknowledged the past week's events.

— kelly o'sullivan, Country Living, "Mark Steines Breaks Social Media Silence Following Hallmark Channel Firing," 8 June 2018
According to the caption, Magee is deadlifting 605 pounds — an enormous amount, even for the 6-foot-5, 323-pound lineman.

— michelle r. martinelli, For The Win, "LSU lineman deadlifts 605 pounds in video that should scare opponents," 13 July 2018
Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Stream Type LIVE Remaining Time -0:00 1x Chapters descriptions off, selected captions and subtitles off, selected This is a modal window.

— zoe harris, Marie Claire, "Kim Kardashian, North, and Kris Jenner Star in Fendi's New Campaign," 9 July 2018
According to the caption, the rest of Dion's look is made up of an asymmetrical JW Anderson dress, blue Saint Lauren heels, round Dior sunglasses, and a Gucci scarf tied around a green Hermès bag.

— marci robin, Allure, "Celine Dion Looks Like a Different Person With Super-Blonde Bangs," 29 June 2018
Norman learned from image captions of a particularly disturbing subreddit, dedicated to images of gore and death.

— laura yan, Popular Mechanics, "Meet Norman, a Psychopath AI Based on Reddit," 9 June 2018
GalaPro works during every performance, because the captions and translations are prepare ahead of time, and then activated by speech-recognition technology to keep the performance and text or audio description in sync.

— azcentral, "GalaPro app’s accessibility, translation services come to ASU Gammage, Tony Awards," 9 June 2018
Correction: June 9, 2018 An earlier version of a photo caption with this article misstated Senator Susan Collins’s votes on efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

— abby goodnough, New York Times, "Trump’s New Plan to Dismantle Obamacare Comes With Political Risks," 8 June 2018
Even lolcats, even cute pictures of kittens made even cuter with the addition of cute captions, hold out an invitation to participation.

— alexis c. madrigal, The Atlantic, "When Did TV Watching Peak?," 30 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'caption.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of caption

probably short for certificate of caption (taking, seizure)

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: circa 1670

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

caption Synonyms

Synonyms

head, header, heading, headline, rubric, title;

Related Words

banner, streamer;

catch word, guide word, running head;

greeting, salutation;

superscript, superscription;

subhead, subheading, subtitle;

Other Publishing Terms

annotate, dreadful, emend, expurgate, factoid, jump, lobster shift, redaction, referee

caption

verb

Definition of caption

captioned; captioning play \-sh(ə-)niŋ\

transitive verb

: to furnish with a caption

Almost all live TV sports events are captioned for the hearing-impaired.

Recent Examples of caption from the Web

Court reporters are hired to document legal depositions and provide closed captioning services.

— laura crimaldi, BostonGlobe.com, "Era comes to an end as state ends its use of court reporters," 27 June 2018
El Moussa captioned an Instagram video taken at the car dealership.

— eileen reslen, House Beautiful, "Tarek El Moussa Just Bought His Nanny a Luxury Car for Her Birthday," 14 June 2018
Almond porridge, vanilla almond bliss balls and bright pink smoothie bowls all artfully photographed and wittingly captioned; her first posts all included a bit of oats — an ingredient that still makes a frequent appearance until this day.

— NBC News, "How one woman turned getting fired into a six-figure business," 30 Apr. 2018
Foster captioned a shot of himself lounging in a white button-down shirt, khaki shorts and sunglasses, giving photo credit to his new fiancée.

— sarah michaud, EW.com, "Katharine McPhee and David Foster are engaged," 3 July 2018
More than 1 million Arizonans have some form of hearing loss – captioning ensures more people can enjoy our events.

— caitlin hartman, azcentral, "Hear from journalists at Arizona Storytellers: Stories about Stories on July 17," 17 June 2018
But on Instagram, even that which is purportedly honest has often been thoughtfully selected, filtered, and captioned.

— lindsey lanquist, SELF, "Do Yourself a Favor and Follow My Best Friend’s Mom on Instagram," 25 May 2018
The internet had a field day captioning the viral photo of him with hot takes.

— ashley hoffman, Time, "Suits' Rick Hoffman's Facial Expression Was a Royal Wedding Highlight," 19 May 2018
Google also highlighted its new closed-captioning AI feature that isolates individual voices to produce more accurate and understandable closed-captions, particularly in situations that feature more than one person talking at the same time.

— valentina palladino, Ars Technica, "Gmail’s new “smart compose” feature will help you write emails faster," 8 May 2018

Origin and Etymology of caption

see ¹caption

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1848

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

CAPTION Defined for English Language Learners

caption

noun

Definition of caption for English Language Learners

: a sentence or group of words that is written on or next to a picture to explain what is being shown

CAPTION Defined for Kids

caption

noun cap·tion \ ˈkap-shən \

Definition of caption for Students

: a comment or title that goes with a picture

Law Dictionary

caption

noun cap·tion \ ˈkap-shən \

legal Definition of caption

: the part of a legal document that states the court, the names of the parties, the docket number, the title of the document, and sometimes the name of the judge