sculpture

American  

[skuhlp-cher] / ˈskʌlp tʃər /

noun

• sculptures
  plural

1. the art of carving, modeling, welding, or otherwise producing figurative or abstract works of art in three dimensions, as in relief, intaglio, or in the round.

2. such works of art collectively.

3. an individual piece of such work.

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verb (used with object)

• sculptures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sculptured,
  past participle,  past
• sculpturing
  present participle

1. to carve, model, weld, or otherwise produce (a piece of sculpture).

2. to produce a portrait or image of in this way; represent in sculpture.

3. Physical Geography. to change the form of (the land surface) by erosion.

verb (used without object)

• sculptures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sculptured,
  past participle,  past
• sculpturing
  present participle

1. to work as a sculptor.

sculpture British  

/ ˈskʌlptʃə /

noun

1. the art of making figures or designs in relief or the round by carving wood, moulding plaster, etc, or casting metals, etc

2. works or a work made in this way

3. ridges or indentations as on a shell, formed by natural processes

4. the gradual formation of the landscape by erosion

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verb

1. (also intr) to carve, cast, or fashion (stone, bronze, etc) three dimensionally

2. to portray (a person, etc) by means of sculpture

3. to form in the manner of sculpture, esp to shape (landscape) by erosion

4. to decorate with sculpture

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• resculpture
  verb (used with object)
• nonsculptural
  adjective
• sculptural
  adjective
• unsculptural
  adjective
• nonsculpturally
  adverb
• sculpturally
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sculptures
  plural

Participles

• sculpturing
  present
• sculptured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sculpture
  simple
• sculptures
  simple
• have sculptured
  perfect
• has sculptured
  perfect
• am sculpturing
  progressive
• are sculpturing
  progressive
• is sculpturing
  progressive
• have been sculpturing
  perfect progressive
• has been sculpturing
  perfect progressive

Past

• sculptured
  simple
• had sculptured
  perfect
• was sculpturing
  progressive
• were sculpturing
  progressive
• had been sculpturing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sculpture
  simple
• will have sculptured
  perfect
• will be sculpturing
  progressive
• will have been sculpturing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of sculpture

1350–1400; Middle English (noun) < Latin sculptūra, equivalent to sculpt ( us ) (past participle of sculpere to carve) + -ūra -ure

Explanation

Sculpture is a type of artwork that's two- or three-dimensional, so you can see it from different sides. You can make sculpture from clay, marble, wood, and even mashed potatoes, though the potato kind might not make it into an art museum. From the Latin sculpere "to carve," sculpture often is carved out of a block of wood, stone, or other material. Statues and outdoor artworks are one type of sculpture, and they are freestanding — you can walk around them, under them, or even over them. Other types are carved into walls, with the figures or objects sticking out from a flat surface. Artists called sculptors use soft materials, metal, and even ice and common objects like cars and cans to make sculpture.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sculpture sculptures sculptured sculpturing

A giant clay sculpture of Pope Leo XIV's head takes shape in a workshop in Peru's capital, as the Andean nation prepares for the pontiff's visit in November.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

The town’s ice sculpture competition is in danger of being canceled forever.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Trump added that he and First Lady Melania had participated in the design of the sculpture.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026

His molds, based on the form of a lion sculpture in the British Museum, delve into the politics of collecting and ponder what is lost when cultural artifacts are centralized in institutions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

“He texted just now and said did I want to meet him at the sculpture garden in half an hour.”

From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart

At Huxley-Parlour, SaraNoa Mark’s chunky cast-glass sculptures look like fragments of artifacts from an ancient alien civilization.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

Wolfe maintained that he acquired the sculptures legally and regarded them as ritually deactivated or abandoned.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026

Following the show — billowing shapes, punk-y hair sculptures, all classically Collina — we walked into a whimsical picnic complete with a margarita fountain.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

It also includes several sculptures by him, as well as objects and furniture that belonged to the painter, such as his easel and wheelchair.

From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026

I run toward it, gazing at the brightly painted sculptures of many-armed gods and goddesses decorating the roof.

From "Born Behind Bars" by Padma Venkatraman

In “An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles,” authors David Gebhard and Robert Winter suggest that the ornate ends of the bridge “cry out for sculptured saints.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

His charming, whimsical collection featured ruffled tutus, sculptured soft knits, peplum jackets, skirts with bustles and plenty of shearling fabric.

From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2026

The idea is that you place your hand inside the mouth of this large sculptured mask, and then let the magic of the Bocca della Verita be your lie detector.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 11, 2021

Her new collection — the result of a continuing collaboration with artisans in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest — includes vessels, furniture and sculptured objects made of wood.

From New York Times ● Oct. 28, 2021

His sister was almost as tall as I, with dark, vivacious eyes and a face almost exactly like Danny’s, except that the sculptured lines were a good deal softer.

From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok

A busboy is embraced by the beatnik art community when he develops an impressive but morbid method of sculpturing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2019

The Weinstein Company is set to release “Butter,” in which Jennifer Garner plays an ambitious conservative who gets caught up in the world of competitive butter sculpturing, on Oct.

From New York Times ● May 30, 2012

Norma Lyon, a self-described dairy farmer’s wife and mother of nine who achieved fame well beyond the Midwest as the “butter-cow lady” of the Iowa State Fair, sculpturing tons of U.S.

From New York Times ● Jun. 28, 2011

It can range from painting or sculpturing to commissioning manufactured items like the sets of boxlike aluminum and plexiglass units to which Donald Judd gave no title.

From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2011

The power with which this self-actualization imbued me has been sculpturing my "I" into a form of my choosing ever more acceptable to me, and accepting of others.

From Humanistic Nursing by Josephine G. Paterson

Related Words

• sculpt