Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use contour in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Contour means an outline, boundary or border, usually of curved shape. Example: “After the drilling and tapping operations, we come in with a mill and do some contouring.”

Examples of contour by meaning

nounAn outline, boundary or border, usually of curved shape.

  • the low drag contour of a modern automobile
  • The semi-streamlined contour of the earlier G.W.R. railcars has been given up in favour of a more utilitarian blunt-nose end, and effective floor space gained thereby.1941 October, “Notes and News: Great Western Parcels Railcar”, in Railway Magazine, page 474

nounA general description giving the most important points.

  • Contours of a deal with conservative holdouts who had been blocking McCarthy’s rise had emerged the night before, and took hold after four dismal days and 14 failed votes in an intraparty standoff unseen in modern times.January 7 2023, Lisa Mascaro, Farnoush Amiri, “McCarthy elected House speaker in rowdy post-midnight vote”, in AP News

verbTo practise the makeup technique of contouring.

  • What is the French-preferred method to add dimension to the skin, if not to contour?2015 April 29, Kathleen Hou, “Why French Women Don’t Contour”, in The Cut, New York, U.S.A.: Vox Media, retrieved 02 Jul 2020

verbTo shape conditions regarding salient points.

  • But the bill will exact a heavy cost — one that will complicate its prospects even if it passes the full House this week and will contour the political climate ahead of 2026 midterm elections.2025 May 19, Stephen Collinson, “A double challenge is putting Trump’s credibility on the line”, in CNN Politics, CNN

More sentences with contour

  • After the drilling and tapping operations, we come in with a mill and do some contouring.From the entry mill
  • I draw contours first, gradually shading in midtones and shadows.From the entry shade
  • The actual reading of the text itself is accompanied by certain common paralexical and extratextual features. The paralexical features are the intonational contours and stress patterns given the oral reading.From the entry paralexical
  • Additionally, three contours occur in the multiethnolectal phrase instead of two in the standard.2019, Nathan Joel Young, Rhythm in late-modern Stockholm: Social stratification and stylistic variation in the speech of men, BOOKS on…. From the entry multiethnolectal
  • Skew is the contour, or the unevenness, in a distribution, the dent in the bell curve.2013, Larry Shover, “Volatility Skew: Smile or Smirk?”, in Trading Options in Turbulent Markets: Master Uncertainty through Active…. From the entry skew
  • The lip line from the nose to the flews shows a sharp, well-defined, square contour.2013, Edward M. Gilbert, Jr; Patricia H. Gilbert, “Flews”, in Encyclopedia of K9 Terminology, →ISBN. From the entry flew
  • An orthophoto plan with added contour lines is a modern mapping product, called an orthophoto map.2012, T. J. Blachut, A. Chrzanowski, J. H. Saastamoinen, Urban Surveying and Mapping, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 293. From the entry orthophoto
  • As we stretch rubber, we are pulling the jumpropes out to a flatter contour.2006, Cycle World Magazine, volume 45, number 1, page 1. From the entry jump rope
  • A new R&D effort produced Huggies, a contour diaper with an hourglass shape and elastic leg bands.2005, Mark E. Parry, Strategic Marketing Management: A Means-end Approach, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 131. From the entry contour diaper
  • Alternatively, contour depressions can be corrected by autologous lipoinjections harvested from local or distant donor areas.2003, Rhoda S. Narins, Safe Liposuction and Fat Transfer, →ISBN, page 346. From the entry lipoinjection
  • Young animals are angular and slightly thin-fleshed; mature animals are slightly thick-fleshed, but irregular in contour.1999, J. S. Pruthi, Quick Freezing Preservation of Foods: Foods of animal origin. From the entry wasty
  • Jazz symbols include many contoured articulations and inflections, such as doits, fall-offs, and scoops.1995, Music & Computers, volume 1, numbers 2-4, page 57. From the entry scoop
  • Banked bone can also influence the contour of a facial restoration, according to Dr.1987 January 11, Cheryl P. Weinstock, “New Bone Bank Aids Hip Surgery”, in New York Times, retrieved 04 Aug 2013. From the entry anatomically correct
  • A critical feature seems to be the subtle contouring of the seat known as its ‘bottoming’.1986, Stephen Pheasant and Christine M. Haslegrave, Bodyspace: Anthropometry, Ergonomics, and the Design of Work, page 80. From the entry bottoming
  • The contour diaper is regarded by some experts as an attempt to improve an unimprovable product.1970, California Farmer, volume 232, page 9. From the entry contour diaper
  • Now converging, now diverging, these fences presented a striking irregularity of contour.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC. From the entry party
  • One feature of the body, which is constructed of pressed-steel members, is the contour of the sides.1951 May, “British Railways Standard Coaches”, in Railway Magazine, page 327. From the entry tangent
  • Nearly a decade after that contour selfie, the similarly capitalistic, pseudo-minimalist ‘clean girl aesthetic’ seemingly has millions in a chokehold.2022 September 29, Rose Coffey, “What TikTok’s passport makeup craze teaches us about beauty”, in i-D, archived from the original on 16…. From the entry clean girl
  • Framed as the anthesis of contouring, the clean girl beauty look favours simplicity and a natural approach to makeup.2022 September 29, Rose Coffey, “What TikTok’s passport makeup craze teaches us about beauty”, in i-D, archived from the original on 16…. From the entry clean girl
  • But what if feeding pigeons reveals contours of a large-scale affective militancy among older people in the public space?2020, Fahim Amir, Being and Swine: The End of Nature (As We Knew It), unnumbered page. From the entry granarchist
  • Don't always feel that you need to clean that dirt off your face with that foundation powder or contour layers.2016, Lindsay Bowman, To The Girls With Dirt On Their Faces. From the entry dirt
  • Contouring is not our thing because the main beauty philosophy in France is to accept who you are.2015 April 29, Kathleen Hou, “Why French Women Don’t Contour”, in The Cut, New York, U.S.A.: Vox Media, retrieved 02 Jul 2020. From the entry contouring
  • These contour deformities may be a result of trauma, various dermatologic or systemic disorders and previous aesthetic nasal surgeries.2015, Ali Manafi et al., “Injectable Cartilage Shaving: An Autologous and Long Lasting Filler Material for Correction of Minor Contour…. From the entry redrape
  • In Deleuzian terms, the self—beselved body—is a contour map on which are charted the exhilarating lines of desire.2012, Paul C. Martin, The Feminine in the Making of God: Highlighting the Sensible Topography of Divinity. From the entry beselve
  • Resection of the frontalis muscle can result in a contour defect and should be avoided when harvesting a galeal flap.1999, Robert F Keating, An Atlas of Orbitocranial Surgery, page 40. From the entry galeal
  • Most containers have contoured shapes, presumably for ease of gripping.1996, Edward Kippel, How to Clean Practically Anything, Consumer Reports Books, →ISBN, page 14. From the entry ultraconcentrated
  • His androgynes must be voluptuously female in body contour.1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae. From the entry boy-girl
  • On the subject of environments, our anatomically contoured houndstooth design provides exceptional traction on all terrains and in all weather conditions.1982 -, Women's Sports - Volume 4, Issues 7-12, page 64. From the entry downstrike
  • The overbow formers are then lowered out of the net contour, exposing fixed net contour ( inner mold line ) formers.1976, “Age-Forming Aluminum Panels”, in NASA Tech Briefs. From the entry overbow
  • The contour of the root bead is very irregular and solidified drops of metal, "cherries" or "dingleberries," extend therefrom evidencing burn-throughs.1951, Charles Diehl, Method for Welding a Joint, US Patent 2747065, page 3. From the entry dingleberry
  • His eyes were green and every cat I see to this day reminds me of the exact contour of his face.1915, Joseph Conrad, “Author's Note”, in Victory: An Island Tale. From the entry remind
  • If you are going to be walking in mountainous or rough terrain it is often a good idea to plan a route following contour lines.2020 July 2 (last accessed), “Advanced guide to reading contours and relief”, in Map reading, Ordnance Survey. From the entry contouring
  • These areas remain the focus of most noninvasive body contouring technologies including cryolipolysis, nonthermal focused ultrasound, high-intensity thermal focused ultrasound (HIFU), and focus field radiofrequency.2017, Neil S. Sadick, Cosmetic Dermatology for Men, an Issue of Dermatologic Clinics, →ISBN. From the entry cryolipolysis
  • It attempts to show that the contours of experimentation encompass both personal shifts (from passenger to transumer) and system transformations (the arrival of 'Airports 3.0').2015, Anthony Elliott, Identity Troubles: An introduction, →ISBN. From the entry transumer
  • The Rendulic contours in principal stress space showed that the stress paths taken were members of a family for both drained and undrained tests.2013, Nayland G. Stanley-Wood, Enlargement and Compaction of Particulate Solids, →ISBN. From the entry Rendulic

Meaning of contour

  1. noun An outline, boundary or border, usually of curved shape.
  2. noun A line on a map or chart delineating those points which have the same altitude or other plotted quantity: a contour line or isopleth; (metonymically) the landform or its surface.
  3. noun A speech sound which behaves as a single segment, but which makes an internal transition from one quality, place, or manner to another.

Full definition of contour

Questions about contour in a sentence

How do you use contour in a sentence?
Contour is used as a noun and verb. For example: “After the drilling and tapping operations, we come in with a mill and do some contouring.”
What is a short sentence with contour?
“the low drag contour of a modern automobile”
What does contour mean?
Contour means an outline, boundary or border, usually of curved shape.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: contour (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use contour in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/contour. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.