vignette
Americannoun
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vignettes
plural
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a decorative design or small illustration used on the title page of a book or at the beginning or end of a chapter.
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an engraving, drawing, photograph, or the like that is shaded off gradually at the edges so as to leave no definite line at the border.
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a decorative design representing branches, leaves, grapes, or the like, as in a manuscript.
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any small, pleasing picture or view.
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a small, graceful literary sketch.
verb (used with object)
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vignettes,
present (3rd person singular)
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vignetted,
past participle, past
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vignetting
present participle
noun
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a small illustration placed at the beginning or end of a book or chapter
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a short graceful literary essay or sketch
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a photograph, drawing, etc, with edges that are shaded off
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architect a carved ornamentation that has a design based upon tendrils, leaves, etc
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any small endearing scene, view, picture, etc
verb
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to finish (a photograph, picture, etc) with a fading border in the form of a vignette
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to decorate with vignettes
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to portray in or as in a vignette
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Usage
What does vignette mean? A vignette is a small illustration or design, especially one that appears on a book’s title page or between chapters. This primary meaning of vignette has been extended in several ways, such as to refer to other small illustrations or images done in a similar style, or to brief scenes from literature or other works. Vignette can also be used as a verb, meaning to create such a thing or to do something in the style of a vignette. Example: I love these old books that have lovely vignettes at the beginning of each chapter.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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vignettesimple
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vignettessimple
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have vignettedperfect
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has vignettedperfect
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am vignettingprogressive
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are vignettingprogressive
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is vignettingprogressive
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have been vignettingperfect progressive
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has been vignettingperfect progressive
Past
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vignettedsimple
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had vignettedperfect
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was vignettingprogressive
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were vignettingprogressive
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had been vignettingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of vignette
1745–55; < French: literally, little vine ( see vine, -ette); so called from vinelike decorations in early books
Explanation
A vignette is a brief but powerful scene. A good vignette leaves you wanting more. Over the centuries a vignette has taken on different forms. Originally it was one of those small sketches you find in the front of old books, often with decorative bands of ivy around its edges (the word comes from the French vigne for vineyard). When cinema came along, a vignette became a quick portrait in film of a character. Some films, like Robert Altman's Short Cuts, are essentially just a compilation of individual vignettes.
Vocabulary lists containing vignette
AP English Lit exam terms
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Power Suffix: -ette
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A vignette about Laika, the Soviet space dog, sets up a futurist fantasia in which a dogs-only space colony finally breaks their reliance on humans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
If one party isn’t as aware of what’s going on as the other party, this isn’t an objectively “right” or “wrong” vignette, per se.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2026
“Our results here show that, for the same client vignette, AI advisers recommend safer portfolios than human advisers and that … scenario cues, not adviser idiosyncrasies, drive the difference.”
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 12, 2025
This was one vignette from the striking array of the world's biggest Silicon Valley tech companies turning on the transatlantic investment tap.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2025
This vignette shows that even belonging to the same professional club as a writer is no protection against her curse of knowledge.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
There will be a nod to the 250th celebrations with historical "vignettes" between bouts, Axios reported, and there will also be military bands, a US military flyover and parachute display and a 10-minute fireworks finale.
From Barron's ● Jun. 14, 2026
Some are vignettes from Ms. Phillips’s early years, while others speak of her nomadic young adulthood, her parents’ divorce and their deaths, and her own experiences as a mother.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Those vignettes became source material for her new music.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2026
These vignettes are where Gyllenhaal’s directorial eye shines the brightest, and where “The Bride!” brims with promise — just before the first of the film’s several unexplained narrative shifts.
From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2026
It’s funny the way I remember my time in France: little vignettes, discombobulated, a narrative drifting along an ocean, a series of scenes that meant nothing until they meant something.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
His grand themes are all there: a two-zone transfer is a bus ticket, sure — but also passage between realms of Black and white; haves and have-nots; harshly lit reality and vignetted dreams.
From New York Times ● Apr. 6, 2022
As such, “Booth” has the feel of an oft-repeated family legend — vignetted at the edges, full of portents, omens and mysterious reversals of fate.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2022
The second filter vignetted around the subject to make them fit in the brandy snifter.
From New York Times ● Jan. 9, 2022
Its political admirals, mercilessly vignetted by Larrabee, were boneheads or worse.
From Time Magazine Archive
Pretty vignetted portrait of the little Miss J., three-quarter length, about size of page 29 of Old Christmas.
From Juliana Horatia Ewing And Her Books by Horatia K. F. Eden
We sent the picture above to Sony, and Rob Brennan, Product Technology Manager at Sony, told The Verge that “Just from this picture alone, this amount of vignetting is within acceptable tolerances.”
From The Verge ● Aug. 4, 2022
Also, there’s some vignetting in the corners and along sections of the edges of my M9 review unit.
From The Verge ● Aug. 4, 2022
Specifically, Lodi notes that they can cause issues such as blurring, distortion, and vignetting.
From Slate ● May 25, 2018
One last downside: In certain photos, when I adjusted the overall contrast in Photoshop later, I noticed some vignetting — darkened areas at the corners.
From New York Times ● Jun. 27, 2012
The illustration is much relieved by vignetting and leaving out: almost the only chance for effect that the artist has by the screened process.
From The Art of Illustration 2nd ed. by Henry Blackburn
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
