figural

English

Etymology

From Old French figural, from late Latin figūrālis, from figūra (“figure”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪɡ(j)ʊɹəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪɡjəɹəl/
• Hyphenation: fig‧ur‧al

Adjective

figural (comparative more figural, superlative most figural)

1. Representing by means of a figure; emblematic.
   • 2007, John Burrow, A History of Histories, Penguin, published 2009, page 185:

     The counterparts, in the Christian era, to the figural anticipation of Christ in the Old Testament were the deliverer monarchs and leaders of later times […]

2. Figurative, not literal.
3. (mathematics, obsolete) Of numbers, describing a geometrical figure.
4. (obsolete) Pertaining to a figure, shape.
5. (rare) Pertaining to (human) figures.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, pages 262–3:

     Some of the Umayyads found themselves charmed by the cultures which they had conquered, so that archaeologists in Palestine and Syria have revealed an astonishing flourishing of Christian-style figural art under their rule.

6. (music) Figurate.

Old French

Adjective

figural m (oblique and nominative feminine singular figurale)

1. symbolic

Declension

Declension of figural

Number	Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular	Subject	figuraus	figurale	figural
	Oblique	figural			figurale	figural
Plural	Subject	figural	figurales		figural
	Oblique	figuraus			figurales	figural

Descendants

• English: figural
• French: figural