metope

[ met-uh-pee, -ohp ]

nounArchitecture.

any of the square spaces, either decorated or plain, between triglyphs in the Doric frieze.

Origin of metope

First recorded in 1555–65, metope is from the Greek word metópē

Also called intertriglyph.

Words Nearby metope

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use metope in a sentence

Each metope contains two figures, grouped in various attitudes; sometimes the Lapithæ, sometimes the Centaurs victorious.
Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects, and Curiosities of Art, (Vol. 2 of 3) | Shearjashub Spooner
As the tragic poet fills the stage with the legend, so the sculptor fills the metope with the legend.
Atlantic Classics, Second Series | Henry C. Merwin
From this to metope, the road extends over an open country capable of cultivation, but neglected.
Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and The | William Griffith
In the first half of the 5th century the sacred marriage was represented on an extant metope from a temple at Selinus.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 3 | Various
For the term "metope" is used of the intervals between dentils as well as of those between triglyphs.
Ten Books on Architecture | Vitruvius

British Dictionary definitions for metope

metope

/ (ˈmɛtəʊp, ˈmɛtəpɪ) /

noun

architect a square space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze

Origin of metope

C16: via Latin from Greek metopē, from meta between + opē one of the holes for the beam-ends

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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