fugue

[ fyoog ]

/ fyug /

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noun

Music. a polyphonic composition based upon one, two, or more themes, which are enunciated by several voices or parts in turn, subjected to contrapuntal treatment, and gradually built up into a complex form having somewhat distinct divisions or stages of development and a marked climax at the end.

Psychiatry. a period during which a person experiences loss of memory, often begins a new life, and, upon recovery, remembers nothing of the amnesic phase.

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Origin of fugue

First recorded in 1590–1600; from French, from Italian fuga, from Latin: “flight”

OTHER WORDS FROM fugue

fugue·like, adjective

Words nearby fugue

fugitometer, fugle, fugleman, fugly, fugu, fugue, fuguist, Führer, Führer, der, Fu-hsi, Fujayrah

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

How to use fugue in a sentence

Next, because the continuation of a phrase also needs to follow a certain musical form, whether it’s a scherzo, trio or fugue, the AI needed to learn Beethoven’s process for developing these forms.
An AI finished Beethoven’s final symphony. But is it good?|Ahmed Elgammal/The Conversation|September 26, 2021|Popular-Science
Years earlier, Elena fell into a possible fugue state and has no memory of six months of her life.
Amanda Dennis’s ‘Her Here’ is a spellbinding existential thriller|Lauren LeBlanc|March 11, 2021|Washington Post
By day, she muddles through in a depressive fugue, for reasons the movie will make clear later.
Promising Young Woman Starts with a Cathartic Blast. Then It Gets Bogged Down With Cynicism|Stephanie Zacharek|January 15, 2021|Time
Research has shown that a fugue state may be induced by intensely emotional or stressful events.
Transient Global Amnesia: What Total Memory Loss Is Like|Dr. Anand Veeravagu, MD|July 28, 2013|DAILY BEAST

Green, however, said: “They can no more be separated than the voices of a fugue.”
Halloween Read: Thomas Browne’s Eerie Premonition of His Burial|Stefan Beck|October 30, 2012|DAILY BEAST
The guy showed up with a giant bottle of OxyContin that he had stolen from his mother and I slipped right back into a fugue state.
Confessions of a Pill Head|Joshua Lyon|July 10, 2009|DAILY BEAST
The sonnet is a sort of poetical fugue in which the theme ought to pass and repass until its final resolution in a given form.
Charles Baudelaire, His Life|Thophile Gautier
I went down to the little parlor and tried the fugue on the piano, but could not remember the portion in question.
Piano Mastery|Harriette Brower
The music of the four-part fugue entered into him more deeply, and he began to hum its little phrases.
The Longest Journey|E. M. Forster
But like the theme in a fugue this loud tranquil recurrent need to Express me transcends them all.
I, Mary MacLane|Mary MacLane
It is customary to describe the music as a fugue, and, if that is so, no more unfugue-like fugue was ever penned.
Richard Wagner|John F. Runciman

British Dictionary definitions for fugue

fugue

/ (fjuːɡ) /

noun

a musical form consisting essentially of a theme repeated a fifth above or a fourth below the continuing first statement

psychiatry a dreamlike altered state of consciousness, lasting from a few hours to several days, during which a person loses his or her memory for his or her previous life and often wanders away from home

Derived forms of fugue

fuguelike, adjective

Word Origin for fugue

C16: from French, from Italian fuga, from Latin: a running away, flight

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

Medical definitions for fugue

fugue

[ fyōōg ]

A pathological amnesiac condition that may persist for several months and usually results from severe mental stress, in which one is apparently conscious of one's actions but has no recollection of them after returning to a normal state.

fugue

Origin of fugue

OTHER WORDS FROM fugue

Words nearby fugue

Words related to fugue

How to use fugue in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for fugue

Derived forms of fugue

Word Origin for fugue

Medical definitions for fugue