profile

plural profiles

1. countableThe outermost shape, view, or edge of an object.

   His fingers traced the profile of the handle.

   Synonyms: contour

2. countableThe shape, view, or shadow of a person's head from the side; a side view.

   The brooch showed the profile of a Victorian woman.

   1 more example

   Driver's licenses have a photograph of the person on them, which is in full face if the person is above legal drinking age, or in profile if not.

3. countableA summary or collection of information, especially about a person.

   Law enforcement assembled a profile of the suspect.

4. InternetcountableA specific page or field in which users can provide various types of personal information in software or Internet systems.

   I just updated my Facebook profile to show I got engaged.

   1 more example

   After getting permisssion from my mom, I personal messaged ten different Harveys from her profile who seemed “obviously” Native and lived in Phoenix.

   2018, Tommy Orange, “Edwin Black”, in There There, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 69

5. figurativelyuncountableReputation, prominence; noticeability.

   Acting is, by nature, profession in which one must keep a high profile.

6. uncountableThe amount by which something protrudes.

   Choose a handle with a low profile so it does not catch on things.

7. countableuncountablearchaeologyA smoothed (e.g., troweled or brushed) vertical surface of an excavation showing evidence of at least one feature or diagnostic specimen; the graphic recording of such as by sketching, photographing, etc.
8. countableuncountableCharacter; totality of related characteristics; signature; status (especially in scientific, technical, or military uses).

   What's the thermal profile on that thing?

9. countableuncountablearchitectureA section of any member, made at right angles with its main lines, showing the exact shape of mouldings etc.
10. countableuncountablecivil engineeringA drawing exhibiting a vertical section of the ground along a surveyed line, or graded work, as of a railway, showing elevations, depressions, grades, etc.
11. countableslanguncountablegovernmentAn exemption from certain types of duties due to injury or disability.
12. countablecomputingA user's preferences.

    A roaming profile allows your settings to follow you from one computer to another across a network.

present singular third person profiles · participle present profiling · participle past profiled · past profiled

1. transitiveTo create a summary or collection of information about (a person, etc.).

   Brianna was profiled as a teen with an unstable living situation and a habit of moving between houses.

   2026 July 16, Nicholas Muhoro, “Inside the 2004 Brianna Maitland Case: One of Vermont’s Most Haunting Mysteries”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 21 Jul 2026

   2 more examples

   The book The Men with the Pink Triangles, profiling the lives of gay prisoners in the German concentration camp.

   1984 April 7, Warren Blumenfeld, “Boston's Other Voice”, in Gay Community News, page 11

   A resource that profiles the important language of secondary disciplines by adapting the methods of EAP research could therefore be very useful for such pedagogy.

   2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 106

2. To act based on such a summary, especially one that is a stereotype; to engage in profiling.
3. transitiveTo draw in profile or outline.
4. transitiveengineeringTo give a definite form by chiselling, milling, etc.
5. transitivecomputingTo measure the performance of various parts of (a program) so as to locate bottlenecks.

   […] a complete and intuitive profiler that supports numerous types of profiling modes and profilable applications.

   2006, Dr. Dobb's Journal