# profile

Pronunciation: say "PROH-fyl" US /ˈpɹoʊfaɪl/, UK /ˈpɹəʊfaɪl/

## Noun

1. A user's personal record in a software or online system, such as a page showing information about them or their stored settings and preferences.
   - Simple: The page or record about you in an app or website, with your details, picture, or saved settings.
   - _Recruiters often check a candidate's profile before scheduling an interview._
   - _He deleted his social media profiles after the data breach._
2. The degree of public attention, reputation, or prominence that a person or thing has.
   - Simple: How well known or talked about a person or thing is.
   - _The merger raised the company's profile among investors._
   - _Activists worked to give the issue a national profile._
3. A compiled summary of information, especially a set of facts describing a particular person.
   - Simple: A short account that brings together facts about a person or thing.
   - _The journalist wrote a detailed profile of the reclusive author._
   - _Investigators assembled psychological profiles of the missing hikers._
4. The character or totality of related characteristics, signature, or status of something, especially in scientific, technical, or military contexts.
   - Simple: The full set of features or qualities that together describe something.
   - _The mission profile called for two midair refueling stops._
   - _Analysts compared the chemical profile of each soil sample._
5. The outline or contour of something as seen from one side, especially the side view of a person's face or head.
   - Simple: The shape of something's edge seen from the side, especially a person's face seen from the side.
   - _The photographer shot her in profile, showing the line of her nose and chin._
   - _The aircraft's sleek profile reduces drag at high speeds._
7. The extent to which something projects or sticks out from a surface.
   - Simple: How far something sticks out from a surface.
   - _The architect favored door hinges with a minimal profile._
   - _Engineers reduced the antenna's profile to cut wind resistance._
10. A cross-section of a structural member, cut at right angles to its main lines, showing the exact shape of its moldings.
   - Simple: A cut made straight across a part of a building to show the exact shape of its edges and trim.
   - _The drawing includes a profile taken at right angles to the beam, revealing the shape of its moldings._
   - _From the profile, the mason could see exactly how deep to cut each curve._
11. A drawing showing a vertical section of the ground along a surveyed line, marking elevations, dips, and grades, as for a railway.
   - Simple: A drawing that shows a side view of the ground along a measured line, with its highs, lows, and slopes.
   - _The engineers' profile of the line showed a steep climb near the river._
   - _The profile revealed a steep descent that would require a deeper cut._
12. A smoothed vertical face of an excavation that exposes at least one feature or diagnostic find, or the sketch or photograph that records that face.
   - Simple: A smoothed upright wall of a dig that shows buried layers and finds, or a drawing or photo of it.
   - _Archaeologists troweled the profile smooth to expose the buried hearth._
   - _The published report included a careful drawing of the profile and its stratified layers._

## Verb

6. To compile a summary or collection of information about a person or thing.
   - Simple: To gather and write down facts about a person or thing.
   - _Journalists regularly profile candidates ahead of major elections._
   - _The documentary profiled several survivors of the disaster._
8. To treat or single out a person according to a generalized stereotype, especially one based on race, ethnicity, or appearance.
   - Simple: To treat someone a certain way because of a stereotype, often based on race or looks.
   - _Critics argue that the policy encourages police to profile minorities._
   - _The store was sued for profiling shoppers based on ethnicity._
9. To measure how the different parts of a program perform in order to find what is slowing it down.
   - Simple: To check how fast each part of a computer program runs, so you can find the slow parts.
   - _We profile the service under load to identify the slowest database queries._
   - _The team profiled the rendering code and cut its run time in half._

## Other meanings

- (verb) To draw an object showing its outline or side view, capturing its shape from one edge.
- (verb) To give a piece its exact form by chiseling, milling, or similar cutting work.
- (noun) An official exemption releasing a service member from certain duties on account of injury or disability.

## Origin

English took the word from French profil, which came from Italian profilo ("a border"), a form later also spelled proffilo with the sense "a side-face, profile." The Italian combines Latin pro ("before") with filo ("a line, stroke, thread"), which comes from filum ("a thread"). Purfle is a doublet.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/profile (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).