Arts & Culture
Art, literature, music, theatre and cultural life.
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64 words
Definitions in: English- 1chiaroscuronountechnicalformal
The treatment of light and shade in painting, especially strong tonal contrasts.
Caravaggio's dramatic chiaroscuro makes the figures seem to emerge from sheer darkness.
- 2trompe-l'oeilnountechnicalformal
A technique using realistic imagery to create an optical illusion of three dimensions.
The ceiling is a trompe-l'oeil so convincing that visitors look up expecting open sky.
- 3impastonountechnical
Paint laid on so thickly that brush or knife marks stand out from the surface.
Van Gogh's heavy impasto gives the sunflowers an almost sculptural relief.
- 4pentimentonountechnicalliterary
A visible trace of an earlier composition showing through a painting where the artist changed their mind.
An X-ray revealed a pentimento: a second hand the painter had later concealed.
- 5patinanounneutralliterary
The greenish or mellow surface acquired by bronze, wood or other materials with age.
The bronze statue has developed a beautiful green patina over the centuries.
- 6provenancenounformaltechnical
The documented history of ownership of a work of art, used to establish authenticity.
The painting fetched millions because its provenance traced back to the artist's own studio.
- 7triptychnountechnicalneutral
A picture or carving on three panels, typically hinged side by side.
The medieval triptych folds shut to protect the gilded saints inside.
- 8iconographynounformaltechnical
The conventional images and symbols associated with a subject, and their study.
Christian iconography assigns each saint a recognisable attribute.
- 9iconoclastnounformalliterary
A person who attacks cherished beliefs or established conventions; historically, a destroyer of images.
As a young iconoclast, he ridiculed everything the academy held sacred.
- 10sfumatonountechnical
The technique of softening transitions between colours and tones to blur outlines.
The Mona Lisa's elusive smile owes everything to Leonardo's sfumato.
- 11pointillismnountechnical
A technique of painting in small distinct dots of colour that blend at a distance.
Seurat pioneered pointillism, letting the eye mix the colours for itself.
- 12bas-reliefnountechnicalformal
Sculpture in which figures project only slightly from a flat background.
A frieze of soldiers marches in bas-relief around the temple.
- 13plinthnountechnicalneutral
The base or pedestal on which a statue or column stands.
The toppled statue left an empty plinth in the town square.
- 14cadenzanountechnical
A virtuosic solo passage, often improvised, near the end of a movement of a concerto.
The soloist's cadenza drew gasps before the orchestra swept back in.
- 15counterpointnountechnicalformal
The art of combining distinct melodic lines that sound together; figuratively, a contrasting element.
Bach's mastery of counterpoint lets four voices sing independently yet in harmony.
- 16polyphonynountechnicalformal
Music in which two or more independent melodic lines are combined.
Renaissance polyphony can weave six voices into a single shimmering texture.
- 17leitmotifnountechnicalformal
A recurring musical theme associated with a character or idea; by extension, a recurring theme in any work.
Wagner gives each hero a leitmotif that returns whenever they appear.
- 18timbrenountechnical
The characteristic quality of a sound that distinguishes one voice or instrument from another.
An oboe and a flute may play the same note, but their timbre is unmistakably different.
- 19atonaladjectivetechnical
Music not written in any key or tonal centre.
Schoenberg's atonal works unsettled audiences used to tidy resolutions.
- 20recitativenountechnical
A style of delivery in opera midway between speech and song, used to carry the plot.
The recitative hurries the story along between the great arias.
- 21syncopationnountechnical
A rhythmic effect created by stressing the normally weak beats.
The syncopation in ragtime gives it that irresistible lurch.
- 22fuguenountechnical
A contrapuntal composition in which a theme is introduced and successively taken up by other voices.
In a fugue, the subject chases itself from voice to voice.
- 23arianountechnicalneutral
An elaborate solo song with orchestral accompaniment, especially in opera.
The soprano's closing aria brought the whole house to its feet.
- 24falsettonountechnicalneutral
A method of singing in a register higher than the natural voice, used especially by male singers.
He slipped into a soaring falsetto for the song's final chorus.
- 25vibratonountechnical
A rapid, slight wavering of pitch used to add warmth and expression to a note.
Her warm vibrato made the long held note shimmer.
- 26codanountechnicalformal
A concluding passage of a piece or movement; figuratively, a rounding-off section.
The symphony's triumphant coda seems to go on forever.
- 27cadencenountechnicalformal
A sequence of chords bringing a musical phrase to a close; also the rhythmic fall of the voice.
The piece resolves on a satisfying perfect cadence.
- 28bildungsromannounliterarytechnical
A novel dealing with one person's formative years and moral development.
Great Expectations is the quintessential English bildungsroman.
- 29pastichenounformalliterary
A work that imitates the style of another artist or period, often as homage or parody.
The novel is a clever pastiche of Victorian detective fiction.
- 30elegynounliteraryformal
A mournful poem, typically a lament for the dead.
He wrote a moving elegy for his late mentor.
- 31odenounliteraryformal
A lyric poem of elevated style, typically addressed to a person, thing or idea.
Keats's ode to a nightingale aches with longing for escape.
- 32epistolaryadjectiveliterarytechnical
Of a literary work written in the form of letters or documents.
Dracula is an epistolary novel stitched together from diaries and letters.
- 33hubrisnounliteraryformal
Excessive pride or self-confidence, especially the kind that brings about a tragic hero's downfall.
The hero's hubris blinds him to the warnings of the gods.
- 34catharsisnounliteraryformal
The purging of emotion, especially pity and fear, experienced by an audience watching tragedy.
Aristotle saw catharsis as the very point of tragedy.
- 35epigraphnounliteraryformal
A short quotation placed at the beginning of a book or chapter to suggest its theme.
The epigraph from Dante hints at the descent the novel will take.
- 36epigramnounliteraryformal
A concise, witty and often paradoxical saying or short poem.
Wilde could toss off a perfect epigram between sips of tea.
- 37palimpsestnounliterarytechnical
A manuscript reused after earlier writing was erased; figuratively, something bearing visible traces of its past.
Scholars recovered a lost treatise from beneath the medieval palimpsest.
- 38pathosnounliteraryformal
A quality in art or speech that evokes pity, sympathy or tender sorrow.
There is real pathos in the clown's lonely final scene.
- 39magnum opusnounformalliterary
The greatest work of an artist, writer or composer.
He laboured for thirty years on what would become his magnum opus.
- 40roman à clefnounliteraryformal
A novel about real people and events disguised as fiction.
Everyone in the literary set read the book as a thinly veiled roman à clef.
- 41metonymynountechnicalliterary
A figure of speech in which something is referred to by the name of an associated thing.
Saying 'the White House announced' is metonymy for the administration.
- 42onomatopoeianountechnicalliterary
The formation of words that imitate the sounds they denote.
Words like 'hiss' and 'clang' are examples of onomatopoeia.
- 43alliterationnountechnicalliterary
The repetition of the same initial consonant sound in neighbouring words.
'Peter Piper picked a peck' is dense with alliteration.
- 44enjambmentnountechnicalliterary
The continuation of a sentence beyond the end of a line of verse without a pause.
The poet's enjambment tugs you breathlessly into the next line.
- 45stanzanountechnicalneutral
A grouped set of lines in a poem, separated from others by a space.
The opening stanza sets the wistful mood of the whole poem.
- 46foilnounliterarytechnical
A character who contrasts with another so as to highlight the other's qualities.
The cheerful sidekick is a foil for the brooding hero.
- 47tropenounliterarytechnical
A recurring motif, convention or figurative device in art and literature.
The brooding orphan hero is a well-worn trope of Gothic fiction.
- 48mise-en-scènenountechnicalformal
The arrangement of everything that appears in a scene — set, props, lighting, actors — on stage or screen.
The director's painstaking mise-en-scène makes every frame a painting.
- 49prosceniumnountechnical
The arch or frame separating the stage from the auditorium in a traditional theatre.
The actors stepped beyond the proscenium to address the audience directly.
- 50thespiannounformalliterary
An actor, especially a stage actor (often used with a touch of grandeur or irony).
The old thespian could silence a room with a single raised eyebrow.
- 51deus ex machinanounliteraryformal
An improbable contrivance suddenly introduced to resolve a plot.
The sudden inheritance feels like a lazy deus ex machina.
- 52fourth wallnountechnicalneutral
The imaginary barrier between performers and the audience in conventional drama.
The narrator breaks the fourth wall to wink at the audience.
- 53pas de deuxnountechnicalformal
A dance for two performers, especially in classical ballet.
Their pas de deux in the second act is the ballet's emotional climax.
- 54dilettantenounpejorativeformal
Someone who dabbles in the arts superficially, without serious commitment.
Real composers resented him as a wealthy dilettante.
- 55aficionadonounneutralformal
An enthusiastic and knowledgeable devotee of an art form or pastime.
Only a true opera aficionado would notice that tiny change of tempo.
- 56vernacularnounformaltechnical
The everyday language or native style of a place; in architecture and art, the indigenous local idiom.
Dante chose to write in the vernacular rather than in Latin.
- 57gravitasnounformalliterary
Dignity, seriousness or weight of manner, especially in a performer or artist.
Few actors could bring such gravitas to the role of the ageing king.
- 58antiquitynounformalliterary
The ancient past, especially the classical civilisations; also an object surviving from it.
The museum's collection of classical antiquity is world-renowned.
- 59homagenounformalliterary
A work created as a respectful tribute to another artist or work.
The final scene is a clear homage to Hitchcock.
- 60verisimilitudenounformalliterary
The appearance of being true or real in art and literature.
The novel's dialogue has such verisimilitude that the characters seem to breathe.
- 61polemicnounformalliterary
A strongly worded attack on or defence of an opinion or position.
The pamphlet is less a balanced essay than a fierce polemic.
- 62in medias resexpressionliterarytechnical
The narrative technique of beginning a story in the middle of the action.
The epic begins in medias res, with the war already raging.
- 63synecdochenountechnicalliterary
A figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole, or vice versa.
Calling a car 'a set of wheels' is an everyday synecdoche.
- 64philistinenounpejorativeinformal
A person hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts.
He dismissed the exhibition as a waste of money — a confirmed philistine.
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A gallery, a concert or a novel gives you plenty to say – if you have the words for it. This pack stocks them: the language of visual art, music, theatre and literature, from brushwork and rhythm to plot and performance. Built for advanced learners, it lets you describe a work, defend an opinion and hold your own in a rich cultural conversation.