Skip to main content
picture postcard

picture postcard

3 3.2
A small card with a photo of a place that you send to someone
  • noun
  • /ˈpɪk.tʃər ˈpoʊst.kɑrd/
translation icon : postal ilustrada
  • He sent me a beautiful picture postcard of the Eiffel Tower during his trip to Paris.
  • send me a picture postcard
  • picture postcard view
  • perfect for a picture postcard

Examples

  • The picture postcard shows a stunning sunset over the beach, capturing the view perfectly.

  • She said, "Today the courier brought a picture postcard addressed to Anna Fink."

    Fiction book (1999)
  • Hey, send us some of those picture postcards, will you, George?

  • I got a picture postcard of it.

  • Send me a picture postcard.

  • But a few months later, I got this picture postcard of the Grand Canyon.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • He saw it on a picture postcard from Scotland.

  • Two days later, I received what was to be my final picture postcard from Gisselle.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • The last we heard of him was a picture postcard from Mazatlan, on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, containing a message of two words.

  • Mrs. Kovaks had quite a collection of picture postcards, too, that she pasted in a book so you couldn't read the writing.

    Fiction book (1990)

Synonyms

post card
vspicture postcard
1 1.0

A card sent by mail without an envelope, often with a picture on one side

refers specifically to a photographed or picturesque image and to attractive things

How Picturesque

picture postcard
3 3.2
postcard
184 1.0

Surface Forms

Morphology

picture + postcard

The meaning 'a postcard with a photograph or attractive image' is directly and compositionally derived from 'picture' + 'postcard' following standard English noun-noun compounding. The extended figurative use (e.g. 'picture-postcard village' = very picturesque) likewise follows transparently from the literal image sense, and similar compounds exist in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Picture postcard comes from the small cards travellers sent that had a picture of a place on one side and space to write on the back as a postcard. Because those cards show a perfect view, people call any very pretty scene 'picture postcard', meaning it looks like the ideal image on the card.