Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to written representation.
  • adjective Of or relating to pictorial representation.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or represented by a graph.
  • adjective Depicted or described in vivid detail: synonym: vivid.
  • adjective Of or relating to the graphic arts.
  • adjective Of or relating to graphics.
  • adjective Geology Having crystals resembling printed characters.
  • noun A work of graphic art.
  • noun A diagram or image used for illustration, as in a lecture.
  • noun A graphic display generated by a computer or an imaging device.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Concerned with or using graphs.
  • Pertaining to the art of writing; concerned with writing, or with words as written; chirographic; orthographic: as, graphic representation; a mere graphic variation.
  • Written; inscribed; expressed by letters.
  • Pertaining to the art of delineation, drawing, or picturing; concerned with the expression or conveyance of ideas by lines or strokes, as distinguished from alphabetic characters: as, the graphic arts.
  • Exhibiting as in a picture; representing with accuracy; describing effectively or vividly; vivid.
  • Working by drawings to scale instead of by arithmetical calculations.
  • Concerned with position, not with measurement.
  • In pathology, a mode of studying diseases of the heart and the great vessels by tracings of an instrument, as the sphygmograph.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the arts of painting and drawing; of or pertaining to graphics.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to the art of writing.
  • adjective Written or engraved; formed of letters or lines.
  • adjective Having the faculty of clear, detailed, and impressive description.
  • adjective Well delineated; clearly and vividly described; characterized by, clear, detailed, and impressive description; vivid; evoking lifelike images within the mind.
  • adjective describing nudity or sexual activity in explicit detail.
  • adjective relating to or presented by a graph{2}.
  • adjective , a branch of algebra in which, the properties of equations are treated by the use of curves and straight lines.
  • adjective a name given to those fine arts which pertain to the representation on a fiat surface of natural objects; as distinguished from music, etc., and also from sculpture.
  • adjective (Chem.) See under Formula.
  • adjective See under Granite.
  • adjective the method of scientific analysis or investigation, in which the relations or laws involved in tabular numbers are represented to the eye by means of curves or other figures; as the daily changes of weather by means of curves, the abscissas of which represent the hours of the day, and the ordinates the corresponding degrees of temperature.
  • adjective (Math.) See Sylvanite.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective drawn, pictorial
  • adjective vivid, descriptive
  • adjective grotesque or otherwise repulsively gory
  • adjective pornographic
  • noun A drawing or picture.
  • noun mostly in plural A computer-generated image as viewed on a screen forming part of a game or a film etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an image that is generated by a computer
  • adjective relating to or presented by a graph
  • adjective evoking lifelike images within the mind
  • adjective of or relating to the graphic arts
  • adjective written or drawn or engraved
  • adjective describing nudity or sexual activity in graphic detail

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin graphicus, from Greek graphikos, from graphē, writing, from graphein, to write; see gerbh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin graphicus ("belonging to painting or drawing"), from Ancient Greek γραφικός (graphikos, "belonging to painting or drawing, picturesque, of or for writing; of style, lively"), from γραφή (graphē, "drawing, painting, writing, a writing, description, etc."), from γράφω (graphō).

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Examples

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  • I must admit to some discomfort as a reader when meaning 4 collides with 9/10, viz:

    "Warning: Some images are graphic."

    - The Egypt Protests, 28 Jan 2011.

    February 1, 2011