Terminology in the Arts
Colour – noun
1. The quality of an object or substance with respect to light reflected by the object,
usually determined visually by measurement of hue, saturation, and brightness of
the reflected light; saturation or chroma; hue.
2. Vivid or distinctive quality, as of a literary work: Melville's description of a
whaling voyage is full of colour.
3. Details in description, customs, speech, habits, etc., of a place or period: The
novel takes place in New Orleans and contains much local color.
4. Something that is used for coloring; pigments; paint; tint; dye.
5. Background information, as anecdotes about players or competitors or analyses of
plays, strategy, or performance, given by a sportscaster to heighten interest in a
sportscast.
Line – noun
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A mark or stroke long in proportion to its breadth, made with a pen, pencil,
tool, etc., on a surface: a line down the middle of the page.
Something resembling a traced line, as a band of color, a seam, or a furrow:
lines of stratification in rock.
A verse of poetry: A line in iambic pentameter contains five feet.
Usually, lines. The words of an actor's part in a drama, musical comedy, etc.:
to rehearse one's lines.
A mark made by a pencil, brush, or the like, that defines the contour of a
shape, forms hatching, etc.
Music. Any of the straight, horizontal, parallel strokes of the staff, or one
placed above or below the staff.
Rhythm – noun
1. Movement or procedure with uniform or patterned recurrence of a beat, accent, or
the like.
2. Music: A. The pattern of regular or irregular pulses caused in music by the
occurrence of strong and weak melodic and harmonic beats. B. A particular form
of this: duple rhythm; triple rhythm.
3. Measured movement, as in dancing.
4. Art, Literature. A patterned repetition of a motif, formal element, etc., at regular
or irregular intervals in the same or a modified form.
5. The effect produced in a play, film, novel, etc., by the combination or
arrangement of formal elements, as length of scenes, speech and description,
6. Timing, or recurrent themes, to create movement, tension, and emotional value in
the development of the plot.
7. The pattern of recurrent strong and weak accents, vocalization and silence, and
the distribution and combination of these elements in speech.
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8. Regular recurrence of elements in a system of motion.
Texture – noun
1. The visual and esp. tactile quality of a surface: rough texture.
2. The characteristic structure of the interwoven or intertwined threads, strands, or
the like, that make up a textile fabric: coarse texture.
3. The characteristic visual and tactile quality of the surface of a work of art
resulting from the way in which the materials are used.
4. The imitation of the tactile quality of represented objects.
5. The quality given, as to a musical or literary work, by the combination or
interrelation of parts or elements.
Shape – noun
1. The quality of a distinct object or body in having an external surface or outline of
specific form or figure.
2. This quality as found in some individual object or body form: This lake has a
peculiar shape.
3. An assumed appearance; guise: an angel in the shape of a woman.
4. Proper form; orderly arrangement.
Form – noun
1. External appearance of a clearly defined area, as distinguished from color or
material; configuration: a triangular form.
2. The shape of a thing or person.
The organization, placement, or relationship of basic elements, such as lines and
colors in a painting or volumes and voids in a sculpture, so as to produce a
coherent image; the formal structure of a work of art.
3. A three-dimensional quality or volume, as of a represented object or anatomical
part.
4. An object, person, or part of the human body or the appearance of any of these,
esp. as seen in nature: His work is characterized by the radical distortion of the
human form.
Value – noun
1. Relative worth, merit, or importance: the value of a college education; the value
of a queen in chess.
2. Degree of lightness or darkness in a color.
3. The relation of light and shade in a painting, drawing, or the like.
4. Music. The relative length or duration of a tone signified by a note.
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Space – noun
1. The unlimited or incalculably great three-dimensional realm or expanse in which
all material objects are located and all events occur.
2. The designed and structured surface of a picture: In Mondrian's later work he
organized space in highly complex rhythms.
3. The illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface.
Pattern – noun
1. A decorative design, as for wallpaper, china, or textile fabrics, etc.
2. A combination of qualities, acts, tendencies, etc., forming a consistent or
characteristic arrangement: the behavior patterns of teenagers.
3. Anything fashioned or designed to serve as a model or guide for something to be
made: a paper pattern for a dress.
4. To attempt to match or duplicate.
Contrast – verb
1. To compare in order to show unlikeness or differences; note the opposite natures,
purposes, etc.
Noun
1. Photography. The relative difference between light and dark areas of a print or
negative.
2. A difference between linguistic elements, esp. sounds that can serve to distinguish
meanings.
Harmony – noun
1. Agreement; accord; harmonious relations.
2. Any simultaneous combination of tones.
3. The simultaneous combination of tones, esp. when blended into chords pleasing
to the ear; chordal structure, as distinguished from melody and rhythm.
4. The science of the structure, relations, and practical combination of chords.
Unity – noun
1. The state of being one; oneness.
2. Oneness of mind, feeling, etc., as among a number of persons; concord, harmony,
or agreement.
3. Absence of diversity; unvaried or uniform character.
4. One of the three principles of dramatic structure (the three unities) derived from
Aristotelian aesthetics and formalized in the neoclassic canon in which a play is
required to represent action as taking place in one day (unity of time), as
occurring within one place (unity of place), and as having a single plot with a
beginning, middle, and end (unity of action).