statuary
/ˈstæ.t͡ʃʊə.ɹi/US/ˈstæ.t͡ʃu.ɛəɹi/
statuary noun: the craft of making statues.
Noun (1)
statuary (uncountable)
- The craft of making statues.
- Statues considered collectively.
- Simply on aesthetic grounds I can almost applaud the Victorians’ fig obsessed Bowdlerisation of Greek and Roman statuary.2012, Ruth Ramsden, chapter 9, in Blue Murder at the Pink Parrot, London: Cutting Edge Press, →ISBN, page 137
Noun (2)
statuary (plural statuaries)
- A person who makes or deals in statues.
Adjective
statuary (comparative more statuary, superlative most statuary)
- Of, relating to, or characteristic of statues.
- He [Francis Bacon] lyeth interred in the Church of St. Michael at St. Albans in Hartfordſhire, and hath there a fair ſtatuary monument erected for him of white Marble at the coſt of Sir Thomas Meautis, his ancient ſervant, who was not neerer to him living then dead: […]1655, [Hamon L’Estrange], The Reign of King Charles: An History Faithfully and Impartially Delivered and Disposed into Annals, London: […] E. C. for Edward Dod, and Henry Seile the younger, […], page...
- There is the lady’s own book, complete without a teacher—showing how the waist should be boddiced; the parasol handled; the statuary attitudes; the Parisian curtsy; the prettiest toss of the head, and swing of the train.1862, James B[owen] Everhart, “Women”, in Miscellanies, West Chester, Pa.: Edward F. James, page 32
Forms of statuary
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | statuaries |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more statuary |
| superlative | most statuary |
Origin of statuary
From Latin statuāria (ars) (“(art) of sculpture”), feminine of the adjective statuārius (“of statues”).
From Latin statuārius (“maker of statues”).
From the noun or the Latin adjective statuārius (“of statues”).
Words formed from statuary
Questions about statuary
- What does statuary mean?
- Statuary means the craft of making statues.
- What part of speech is statuary?
- Statuary can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce statuary?
- Statuary is pronounced /ˈstæ.t͡ʃʊə.ɹi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of statuary?
- The plural of statuary is statuaries.
Words near statuary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: statuary (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-statuary.wav.
Cite this entry: “statuary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/statuary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.