ekphrasis
/ˈɛkfɹəsɪs/
ekphrasis noun: a clear, intense, self-contained argument or verbal description of an object, especially of an artwork.
Noun
ekphrasis (countable and uncountable, plural ekphrases)
- A clear, intense, self-contained argument or verbal description of an object, especially of an artwork.
- One [trope] is ekphrasis, the literary description of a work of art, the most famous example of which may be the careful depiction of the shield of Achilles in book 18 of the Iliad.2004, Daniel Donoghue, Old English Literature, Blackwell, published 2004, page 75
- Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is a good contender, the classic example of ekphrasis.2026 June 3, Elisa Gabbert, “How Poets Went From Describing Art to Personally Admiring It”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Forms of ekphrasis
| plural | ekphrases |
|---|---|
| alternative form | ecphrasis |
Origin of ekphrasis
From Ancient Greek ἔκφρασις (ékphrasis, “description”), from ἐκφράζω (ekphrázō, “I describe”), from ἐκ (ek, “out, ex-”) + φράζω (phrázō, “I explain, point out”).
Words formed from ekphrasis
Questions about ekphrasis
- What does ekphrasis mean?
- Ekphrasis means a clear, intense, self-contained argument or verbal description of an object, especially of an artwork.
- What part of speech is ekphrasis?
- Ekphrasis is a noun.
- How do you pronounce ekphrasis?
- Ekphrasis is pronounced /ˈɛkfɹəsɪs/.
- What is the plural of ekphrasis?
- The plural of ekphrasis is ekphrases.
Words near ekphrasis in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ekphrasis (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ekphrasis.wav.
Cite this entry: “ekphrasis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ekphrasis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.