figure

figure, in music, short melodic or rhythmic pattern, the smallest grouping of notes that will produce a single distinct impression. In this sense figure is synonymous with motive. In music before the 18th cent., a figure had an additional meaning of symbolic significance; it was an illustration in sound of textual details, e.g., a descending group of notes for any word expressing descent. As such, it was part of musical rhetoric.

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figure

1. any written symbol other than a letter, esp a whole number

2. another name for digit

3. an amount expressed numerically

4. a representation in painting or sculpture, esp of the human form

5. a pattern or design, as on fabric or in wood

6. a predetermined set of movements in dancing or skating

7. Geometry any combination of points, lines, curves, or planes. A plane figure, such as a circle, encloses an area; a solid figure such as a sphere, encloses a volume

8. Logic one of the four possible arrangements of the three terms in the premises of a syllogism

9. Music

a. a numeral written above or below a note in a part

b. a characteristic short pattern of notes

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figure [′fig·yər]

(materials)

The natural grain of wood, especially when it is cut as a veneer.