sculpture

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

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskʌlpt͡ʃɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskʌlptj(ʊ)ə/, /ˈskʌlpt͡ʃə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sculp‧ture

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).
   • 1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     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.
4. (archaic) A printed picture, such as an engraving.
   • 1690, “Preface to the Reader”, in A Full and True Relation of the Great and Wonderful Revolution That Hapned Lately in the Kingdom of Siam in the East-Indies, London: Randal Taylor, page i:

     Both are Tranſlated into Engliſh, Illuſtrated with Sculptures, and Printed about two Years ago.

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.

• sculpt
• sculptor
• sculptureless
• sculpturelike

• “sculpture”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “sculpture”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “sculpture”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

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

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophone: sculptures

sculpture f (plural sculptures)

1. sculpture

• “sculpture”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• sculpteur

sculptūre

1. vocative masculine singular of sculptūrus