Word.ws English Dictionary

polyptych

/ˈpɒlɪptɪk/

polyptych noun: a work consisting of multiple painted or carved panels joined together, often with hinges.

polyptych: a work consisting of multiple painted or carved panels joined together, often with hinges
Image: Andrea da Murano, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

polyptych (plural polyptychs)

  1. A work consisting of multiple painted or carved panels joined together, often with hinges.
    • [...], a polyptych is a painting with more than one section – a diptych is a painting in two parts or sections, a triptych in three, and so on. Perhaps the most famous polyptych is the Ghent Altarpiece by the early Flemish painters Hubert and Jan van Eyck.2021 September 7, Reginald Wiebe, Polyptych: Adaptation, Television, and Comics, Vernon Press, →ISBN

Forms of polyptych

pluralpolyptychs

Origin of polyptych

From Ancient Greek πολύπτυχος (polúptukhos, “with many folds”), from πολύς (polús, “many”) + πτυχή (ptukhḗ, “a fold”).

Questions about polyptych

What does polyptych mean?
Polyptych means a work consisting of multiple painted or carved panels joined together, often with hinges.
What part of speech is polyptych?
Polyptych is a noun.
How do you pronounce polyptych?
Polyptych is pronounced /ˈpɒlɪptɪk/.
What is the plural of polyptych?
The plural of polyptych is polyptychs.

Words near polyptych in the dictionary

  1. polyptote
  2. polyptotes
  3. polyptoton
  4. polyptotonic
  5. polyptotons
  6. polyptych
  7. polyptychs
  8. polypurine
  9. polypurines
  10. polypurinic
  11. polypus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: polyptych (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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