sculpture

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin sculptura (“sculpture”), from sculpere (“to cut out, to carve in stone”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

sculpture (usually uncountable, plural sculptures)

1. (countable) A three dimensional work of art created by shaping malleable objects and letting them harden or by chipping away pieces from a rock (sculpting).
   • Dryden

     There, too, in living sculpture, might be seen / The mad affection of the Cretan queen.

2. Works of art created by sculpting, as a group.
3. (zoology) The three-dimensional ornamentation on the outer surface of a shell

Verb

sculpture (third-person singular simple present sculptures, present participle sculpturing, simple past and past participle sculptured)

1. To fashion something into a three-dimensional figure.
2. To represent something in sculpture.
3. To change the shape of a land feature by erosion etc.

Related terms

• sculpt
• sculptor
• sculptureless
• sculpturelike

Further reading

• sculpture in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• sculpture in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• sculpture at OneLook Dictionary Search

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skyl.tyʁ/ (p is not pronounced)
• Homophone: sculptures

Noun

sculpture f (plural sculptures)

1. sculpture

Further reading

• “sculpture” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• sculpteur

Participle

sculptūre

1. vocative masculine singular of sculptūrus