Definition of "figuration" [fig•u•ra•tion]

• The act of forming something into a particular shape. (noun)
• A shape, form, or outline. (noun)
• The act of representing with figures. (noun)
• A figurative representation. (noun)
• Music Ornamentation of a passage by embellishing and often repeating figures. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Where the figuration is less narrative and more cogitative, that streaming montage of icons is, of course, of less import."
• "And indeed, Heller's figuration is such a functional idiom that it has been taken-up, used widely by people who may have never read the book, may not even know the origin of the term."
• "Not all figuration is metaphoric though; in metonymy, the process of interpretation is not based on resemblances but on other forms of association -- the association of a crown with a king, for example, such that we use the artefact as a metonymic stand-in for the person."