art form

American  

noun

1. the more or less established structure, pattern, or scheme followed in shaping an artistic work.

   The sonata, the sonnet, and the novel are all art forms.

2. a medium for artistic expression.

   ballet, sculpture, opera, and other art forms.

3. a medium other than the artistic regarded as having highly developed or systematized rules, procedures, or formulations.

   international diplomacy regarded as an art form.

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art form British  

noun

1. a conventionally established form of artistic composition, such as the symphony or the sonnet

2. a recognized medium of artistic expression

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Etymology

Origin of art form

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

Both were affectionate parodies of tropes from classic musicals dating to an era when the art form was far more culturally influential than it is now.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026

These connections made anime and martial arts cinema’s incorporation into hip-hop, an art form built on collaboration and sonic collage, somewhat inevitable.

From Salon • May 31, 2026

He teaches her the ways of his newfangled art form, and she is soon bringing all manner of specimens into the studio, capturing them in carefully composed portraits.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 7, 2026

The dress code for the gala is Fashion Is Art, with guests invited to explore their relationship to fashion as an embodied art form and celebrate depictions of the dressed body throughout art history.

From BBC • May 3, 2026

Besides architecture, the predominant art form of Mesopotamia was bas-relief sculpture.

From "The Annotated Mona Lisa" by Carol Strickland and John Boswell