texture

[ teks-cher ]
See synonyms for: texturetexturedtexturestexturing on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. the visual and especially tactile quality of a surface: rough texture.

  2. the characteristic structure of the interwoven or intertwined threads, strands, or the like, that make up a textile fabric: coarse texture.

  1. the characteristic physical structure given to a material, an object, etc., by the size, shape, arrangement, and proportions of its parts: soil of a sandy texture; a cake with a heavy texture.

  2. an essential or characteristic quality; essence.

  3. Fine Arts.

    • the characteristic visual and tactile quality of the surface of a work of art resulting from the way in which the materials are used.

    • the imitation of the tactile quality of represented objects.

  4. the quality given, as to a musical or literary work, by the combination or interrelation of parts or elements.

  5. a rough or grainy surface quality.

  6. anything produced by weaving; woven fabric.

verb (used with object),tex·tured, tex·tur·ing.
  1. to give texture or a particular texture to.

  2. to make by or as if by weaving.

Origin of texture

1
1400–50; late Middle English <Latin textūra web, equivalent to text(us) (past participle of texere to weave) + -ūra-ure

Other words from texture

  • tex·tur·al, adjective
  • tex·tur·al·ly, adverb
  • tex·ture·less, adjective
  • non·tex·tur·al, adjective
  • non·tex·tur·al·ly, adverb
  • re·tex·ture, verb (used with object), re·tex·tured, re·tex·tur·ing.
  • sem·i·tex·tur·al, adjective
  • sem·i·tex·tur·al·ly, adverb
  • un·tex·tur·al, adjective

Words Nearby texture

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

How to use texture in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for texture

texture

/ (ˈtɛkstʃə) /


noun
  1. the surface of a material, esp as perceived by the sense of touch: a wall with a rough texture

  2. the structure, appearance, and feel of a woven fabric

  1. the general structure and disposition of the constituent parts of something: the texture of a cake

  2. the distinctive character or quality of something: the texture of life in America

  3. the nature of a surface other than smooth: woollen cloth has plenty of texture

  4. art the representation of the nature of a surface: the painter caught the grainy texture of the sand

    • music considered as the interrelationship between the horizontally presented aspects of melody and rhythm and the vertically represented aspect of harmony: a contrapuntal texture

    • the nature and quality of the instrumentation of a passage, piece, etc

verb
  1. (tr) to give a distinctive usually rough or grainy texture to

Origin of texture

1
C15: from Latin textūra web, from texere to weave

Derived forms of texture

  • textural, adjective
  • texturally, adverb
  • textureless, adjective

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

Scientific definitions for texture

texture

[ tĕkschər ]


  1. The general physical appearance of a rock, especially with respect to the size, shape, size variability, and geometric arrangement of its mineral crystals (for igneous and metamorphic rocks) and of its constituent elements (for sedimentary rocks). A sandstone that forms as part of an eolian (wind-blown) deposit, for example, has a texture that reflects its small, rounded sand grains of uniform size, while a sandstone that formed as part of a fluvial deposit has a texture reflecting the presence of grains of varying sizes, with some more rounded than others.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.