Sculpture

How to spell sculpture

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sculpture

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sculpture mean?

1. nounA three-dimensional work of art made by carving, modelling, or casting material such as stone, metal, or clay.

Sculpture in a sentence

• The bronze sculpture stood in the centre of the gallery.

• The museum acquired a marble sculpture from the Renaissance.

Where does sculpture come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb sculpere, which literally meant 'to carve' or 'to cut into a hard surface' such as stone or wood. From that verb came the noun sculptura, describing the act and the product of carving. English took the word in the 1300s, at first through learned and artistic usage, keeping the Latin spelling almost intact, which is why the silent-feeling 'p' and the 'pt' cluster survive. The same sculpere root sits behind related words like 'sculptor' and the older 'sculp', and it explains the spelling trap: people sometimes drop the 'p' or muddle the '-ture' ending. The '-ture' suffix, which also gives us 'picture', 'nature', and 'structure', reliably marks the result of an action, here the thing that has been carved.

How the word is built

• sculpt- (from Latin sculpere: to carve)
• -ure (noun-forming suffix)