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Figure

//ˈfɪɡə// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun

1
A drawing or diagram conveying information.
"For example, while Figure 1 shows information for 516 visitor groups, Figure 3 presents data for 1,625 individuals. A note above each graph or table specifies the information illustrated. ... For example, although Joshua Tree NP visitors returned 525 questionnaires, Figure 1 shows data for only 516 respondents."
2
a predetermined set of movements in dancing or skating wordnet
3
The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modelling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body.
"a figure in bronze; a figure cut in marble"
4
a decorative or artistic work wordnet
5
A person or thing representing a certain consciousness.
"Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures."

Show 24 more definitions

6
a model of a bodily form (especially of a person) wordnet
7
The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career of a person.
"He cut a sorry figure standing there in the rain."
8
the impression produced by a person wordnet
9
Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendour; show. obsolete
"that he may live in figure and indulgence"
10
the property possessed by a sum or total or indefinite quantity of units or individuals wordnet
11
A human figure, which dress or corset must fit to; the shape of a human body.
"The origin of the corset is lost in remote antiquity. The figures of the early Egyptian women show clearly an artificial shape of the waist produced by some style of corset."
12
alternative names for the body of a human being wordnet
13
A numeral.
14
a unitary percept having structure and coherence that is the object of attention and that stands out against a ground wordnet
15
A number, an amount.
"(i) in the 1966 edition of The Destruction of Dresden Irving contended that 135,000 were estimated authoritatively to have been killed and further contended that the documentation suggested a figure between 100,00 and 250,000;"
16
a diagram or picture illustrating textual material wordnet
17
A shape.
"a geometrical figure, a plane figure, a solid figure"
18
language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense wordnet
19
A visible pattern as in wood or cloth.
"The muslin was of a pretty figure."
20
a well-known or notable person wordnet
21
Any complex dance moveᵂ.
"Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness,[…]. It was with a palpable relief that he heard the first warning notes of the figure."
22
an amount of money expressed numerically wordnet
23
A figure of speech.
"to represent the imagination under the figure of a wing"
24
one of the elements that collectively form a system of numeration wordnet
25
The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term.
26
a combination of points and lines and planes that form a visible palpable shape wordnet
27
A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses.
"its quality, like those of all the rest, is determined by its position in the house of the astrological figure"
28
Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression.
"Here, Beethoven limits the syncopations and modifications of rhythm which are so prominent in the first and third movements, and employs a rapid, busy, and most melodious figure in the Violins, which is irresistible in its gay and brilliant effect[…]"
29
A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a motif; a florid embellishment.

Verb

1
To calculate, to solve a mathematical problem. US
2
understand wordnet
3
To come to understand. US
"I can’t figure if he’s telling the truth or lying."
4
make a mathematical calculation or computation wordnet
5
To think, to assume, to suppose, to reckon.
"1. Gent. Thou art alwayes figuring diseases in me; but thou art full of error, I am sound."

Show 13 more definitions

6
judge to be probable wordnet
7
To be reasonable or predictable. US, intransitive
"It figures that somebody like him would be upset about the situation."
8
imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind wordnet
9
To enter into; to be a part of. intransitive
"It is the transcontinental trains which figure most prominently in railway advertising. Both railways run two trains in each direction."
10
be or play a part of or in wordnet
11
To represent in a picture or drawing. transitive
"Although now to be met with in botanic gardens everywhere, there is a certain degree of interest attaching to the figure of it in B.M. 3,992 (1843), although that was by no means the first figure published, for Lambert, Sprengel, and Sir W. Hooker had previously figured it."
12
To represent by a figure, as to form or mould; to make an image of, either palpable or ideal; also, to fashion into a determinate form; to shape. obsolete
"If love, alas! be pain; the pain I bear, / No thought can figure, and no tongue declare."
13
To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.
"The vaulty top of heaven / Figured quite o'er with burning meteors."
14
To indicate by numerals. obsolete
"1698 , John Dryden, Epitaph of Mary Frampton As through a crystal glass the figured hours are seen."
15
To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize.
"whose white vestments figure innocence"
16
To prefigure; to foreshow. obsolete
"His loftie browes in foldes, do figure death, And in their ſmoothneſſe, amitie and life:"
17
To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.
18
To embellish.

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English figure, borrowed from Old French figure, from Latin figūra (“form, shape, form of a word, a figure of speech, Late Latin a sketch, drawing”), from fingō (“to form, shape, mold, fashion”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to mold, shape, form, knead”). Cognate with Ancient Greek τεῖχος (teîkhos), Sanskrit देग्धि (dégdhi), Old English dāg (“dough”). More at dough. Doublet of figura.

Etymology 2

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