Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An early 20th-century movement in painting begun by a group of French artists and marked by the use of bold, often distorted forms and vivid colors.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An artistic movement of the last part of the 19th century which emphasized spontaneity and the use of extremely bright colors.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French fauvisme, from fauve, wild animal, from fauve, wild, reddish-yellow, from Old French falve, reddish-yellow, from Frankish *falw-; see pel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French fauvisme

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Examples

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  • "An early-20th-century movement in painting begun by a group of French artists and marked by the use of bold, often distorted forms and vivid colors." AHD

    The wild beasts.

    March 17, 2008