figure

See also: figuré

English
A figure showing some relationships between variables.
An advertisement promising to improve women's figures.
A sports figure.
A skating figure.

Etymology

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 (degdhi), Old English dāg (“dough”). More at dough. Doublet of figura.

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈfɪɡə/
  • (US, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈfɪɡjɚ/, /ˈfɪɡɚ/
    • (Ottawa Valley) IPA(key): /ˈfɪɡɪu̯ɹ/
  • Audio (GA)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪɡə(ɹ), -ɪɡjə(ɹ)
  • Hyphenation: fig‧ure

Noun

figure (plural figures)

  1. A drawing or diagram conveying information.
    • 2004, Joshua Tree National Park 2004 Visitor Study:
      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. 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
  3. A person or thing representing a certain consciousness.
    • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
      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.
  4. The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career of a person.
    He cut a sorry figure standing there in the rain.
  5. (obsolete) Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendour; show.
    • 1729, William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life:
      that he may live in figure and indulgence
  6. A human figure, which dress or corset must fit to; the shape of a human body.
    • 1919, B. G. Jefferis, J. L. Nichols, Searchlights on Health:
      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.
    • 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 53:
      She was cunningly dressed in a black, sheer gown with gold ornaments showing her figure to perfection.
  7. A numeral.
  8. A number, an amount.
    • 1996, David Irving v. Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt:
      (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;
  9. A shape.
    a geometrical figure, a plane figure, a solid figure
    • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
      Flowers have all exquisite figures.
    • 1908, Algernon Blackwood, John Silence, Physician Extraordinary:
      And these were not human shapes, or the shapes of anything I recognised as alive in the world, but outlines of fire that traced globes, triangles, crosses, and the luminous bodies of various geometrical figures.
  10. A visible pattern as in wood or cloth.
    The muslin was of a pretty figure.
  11. Any complex dance moveW.
  12. A figure of speech.
  13. (logic) The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term.
  14. (astrology) A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses.
    • 1889, Franz Hartmann, The Principles of Astrological Geomancy:
      its quality, like those of all the rest, is determined by its position in the house of the astrological figure
  15. (music) Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression.
    • 1888, George Grove, Beethoven's Nine Symphonies: Analytical Essays:
      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 […]
  16. (music) A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a motif; a florid embellishment.

Derived terms
derived from figure (noun)

Descendants
  • → Japanese: フィギュア (figyua)

Translations
human figure; shape of human body
figure of speech — see figure of speech

Verb

figure (third-person singular simple present figures, present participle figuring, simple past and past participle figured)

  1. (chiefly US) To calculate, to solve a mathematical problem.
  2. (chiefly US) To come to understand.
    I can’t figure if he’s telling the truth or lying.
  3. To think, to assume, to suppose, to reckon.
    • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
      1. Gent. Thou art alwayes figuring diseases in me; but
      thou art full of error, I am sound.
    • 2023, John B. Wright, Fire Scars:
      “I know you figure me for a leftneck fool, correct?”
  4. (chiefly US, intransitive) To be reasonable or predictable.
    It figures that somebody like him would be upset about the situation.
  5. (intransitive) To enter into; to be a part of.
    • 1959 November, J. N. Westwood, “The Railways of Canada”, in Trains Illustrated, page 554:
      It is the transcontinental trains which figure most prominently in railway advertising. Both railways run two trains in each direction.
    • 2005, Paul Beckerman, Andean Exchange-rate Regimes, 1994-2003:
      The exchange rate figures heavily in several other aspects of Venezuela's economy.
  6. (transitive) To represent in a picture or drawing.
    • 1884 August 16, X. Y. Z., “Brazilian or Maté Tea”, in The Gardeners’ Magazine, volume 27 (New Series), number 1,007, page 451:
      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.
  7. (obsolete) 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.
  8. To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.
  9. (obsolete) To indicate by numerals.
    • 1698 , John Dryden, Epitaph of Mary Frampton
      As through a crystal glass the figured hours are seen.
  10. To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize.
  11. (obsolete) To prefigure; to foreshow.
  12. (music) To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.
  13. (music) To embellish.

Derived terms

Translations
to think, to assume, to suppose, to reckon — see assume

Further reading

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin figūra.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /fi.ɡyʁ/
  • audio(file)

Noun

figure f (plural figures)

  1. face
  2. figure

Synonyms

Derived terms

Further reading

Italian

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /fiˈɡu.re/
  • Rhymes: -ure
  • Hyphenation: fi‧gù‧re

Noun

figure f

  1. plural of figura

Middle English

Alternative forms
  • fygure, fegure, fugure, vigure

Etymology

From Old French figure, from Latin figūra.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈfiɡiu̯r(ə)/

Noun

figure (plural figures)

  1. shape, form, appearance

Descendants

References

Portuguese

Verb

figure

  1. inflection of figurar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Verb

figure

  1. inflection of figurar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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