figuration

Definition

The act of giving figure or determinate form.

Etymology

Late Middle English figuracion, from Middle French figuration, from Latin figūrō (“to form”). Equivalent to figurate + -ion.

Example Sentences

• "[…]a shift to modernist building typologies in the early 1950s led to the abandonment of symmetry, centrality, and figuration. Since the 1980s, big-box typologies, frosted with postmodern architectural veneer, have dominated."
• "Here and throughout, variation infuses the music, Chopin’s innovative, elastic figuration masking the underlying similarity of bars 23 and 25."
• "To recapitulate: consider the human form—skin, bone, and flesh. Consider the painting—surface, structure, and pigment. With a little license, the first gives us the ingredients for what might be called human or “figurative” figuration; the second gives us the ingredients for abstract or “nonfigurative” figuration."