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Definition of "sculpture" []

  • The art or practice of shaping figures or designs in the round or in relief, as by chiseling marble, modeling clay, or casting in metal. (noun)
  • A work of art created by sculpture. (noun)
  • Such works of art considered as a group. (noun)
  • Ridges, indentations, or other markings, as on a shell, formed by natural processes. (noun)
  • To fashion (stone, bronze, or wood, for example) into a three-dimensional figure. (verb-transitive)

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.

Use "sculpture" in a sentence
  • "Two and a half centuries of classical-art scholarship have given curators an array of reliable tools with which to assess whether a sculpture is a Greek original, a Roman copy, or a latter-day forgery."
  • "This sculpture is about twenty-seven hundred years old, and is of peculiar interest as a striking testimony from Egypt to the truth of Scripture history."
  • "Mr. Chamberlain felt that even the word "sculpture" was limiting in describing art that, while functioning in three dimensions, could be made from almost anything."