statue
Other forms: statues
To stand as still as a statue is to stand absolutely still, a statue being a sculpture, after all. A statue is a specific kind of sculpture, one that clearly represents a person, an animal, or other living creature.
There's no question that the first thing most people think of when they hear the word statue is the Statue of Liberty. The woman's name is Liberty and there she is, a statue. Any sculpture that represents a person (Liberty, George Washington, Gandhi, or the Mad Hatter) is called a statue. In New York's Central Park, there is a much beloved statue of a dog named Balto, a heroic husky from Alaska.
Definitions of statue
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a sculpture representing a human or animal
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examples:
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Colossus of Rhodes
a huge bronze statue of the sun god Helios that was built around 285 BC and that stood beside the harbor entrance on the island of Rhodes for about 50 years before it was toppled by an earthquake
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Statue of Liberty
a large monumental statue symbolizing liberty on Liberty Island in New York Bay
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types:
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herm
a statue consisting of a squared stone pillar with a carved head (usually a bearded Hermes) on top; used in ancient Greece as a boundary marker or signpost
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nude, nude sculpture, nude statue
a statue of a naked human figure
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Olympian Zeus
a seated statue of the supreme god of ancient Greek mythology created for the temple at Olympia; the statue was 40 feet tall and rested on a base that was 12 feet high
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sphinx
one of a number of large stone statues with the body of a lion and the head of a man that were built by the ancient Egyptians
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term, terminal figure, terminus
(architecture) a statue or a human bust or an animal carved out of the top of a square pillar; originally used as a boundary marker in ancient Rome
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type of:
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sculpture
a three-dimensional work of plastic art
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Colossus of Rhodes
Pronunciation
US
/ˈstætʃu/
UK
/ˈstætʃu/
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DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘statue'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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Commonly confused words
statue / statute
Look under the pigeons and you might find a bronze statue in a park, but there’s probably a statute, or law, about how big it can be.
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