art nouveau

[ ahrt noo-voh, ahr; French ar-noo-voh ]

noun(often initial capital letters)Fine Arts.
  1. a style of fine and applied art current in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterized chiefly by curvilinear motifs often derived from natural forms.

Origin of art nouveau

1
1900–05; <French: literally, new art

Words Nearby art nouveau

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

How to use art nouveau in a sentence

  • Stunned, Margaret did not move from the best parlour, over which the touch of art nouveau had fallen.

    Howards End | E. M. Forster
  • art nouveau furniture, no heavy rugs or draperies, metallic bedsteads, and hot and cold running water in every room.

  • Full-color reproduction of Combinaisons ornementales (c. 1900) by art nouveau masters.

  • It belongs to a wealthy Mexican who was seduced, however, by art nouveau.

    Diplomatic Days | Edith O'Shaughnessy
  • It is as though your old family portrait of the Colonial Governor was framed in “art nouveau.”

    The Tapestry Book | Helen Churchill Candee

British Dictionary definitions for Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau

/ (ɑː nuːˈvəʊ, French ar nuvo) /


noun
    • a style of art and architecture of the 1890s, characterized by swelling sinuous outlines and stylized natural forms, such as flowers and leaves

    • (as modifier): an Art-Nouveau mirror

Origin of Art Nouveau

1
French, literally: new art

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