A silhouette is a view of an object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior. The term comes from Étienne de Silhouette, Louis XV's miserly finance minister.

In art

A silhouette is a form of artwork. It is most commonly a human portrait in profile, in black. Most silhouettes are formed by tracing the shadow of the subject and cutting along the resultant outline.

Shooting

In silhouette-shooting contests, metal silhouettes are shot in place of live game. Competitions exist for pistols and rifles, and different classes such as rimfire, centerfire, and air pistol or air rifle.

The practice originates in Mexico from shooting at the silhouettes of live game visible on ridgelines. Today the targets are metal silhouettes of chickens, pigs, turkeys, and rams, with the increasingly large targets being shot at correspondingly larger distances. It is a precision sport, somewhat less demanding than traditional target shooting, since knocking the target down is the only scoring criterion.

Other meanings

• For the series of romance novels, see Mills & Boon.