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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A work of art.
  2. n. The sum of the lifework of an artist, writer, or composer.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A work of art.
  2. n. The complete body of an artist's work.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the total output of a writer or artist (or a substantial part of it)

Etymologies

  1. French œuvre, from Old French uevre, work, from Latin opera, from pl. of opus, work; see opus.

Examples

  • “I've read a bit of her stuff online, and one thing I notice that seems to be missing from her oeuvre is her own romantic past.”

    IsThatLegal?

  • “The general theme permeating the Appleyard oeuvre, is to suggest that humans have needs which, in general, they don't actually have, such as the need for 'the sacred', and the need for 'spiritual depth', and to suggest that science is a threat because it threatens these needs.”

    Archive 2009-01-01

  • “I strongly suspect that the convention of the oeuvre is that the horrible things threatening the sympathetic characters will not come to pass.”

    Barnstorming on an Invisible Segway

  • “Indeed, the entire oeuvre is more a mirror than I thought: the Stooges weren't the Stooges because they did what was familiar to them.”

    History lessons from Larry, Moe, and Curly

  • “Connie Willis came to mind, but I must admit that my knowledge of her oeuvre is decidedly lacking.”

    MIND MELD: Who Should Be The Next Grand Master?

  • “While the breadth of Marv Albert's cinematic oeuvre is substantial, he's been narrowly typecast: He always plays a sportscaster — specifically, always himself.”

    Marv of the movies: Always in character

  • “But ‘Minus One’, contextualised with the rest of the oeuvre, is completely baffling.”

    Ballardian » Simon Brook's Minus One

  • “Despite the fact this sounds more like a desperate request for prescribed drugs, I am addicted so it does mean that the rest of his oeuvre is on its way.”

    IceBooks

  • “Her oeuvre is too modest, but will never be forgotten.”

    Boing Boing: February 26, 2006 - March 4, 2006 Archives

  • “[W] hat's most annoying about Zwick's oeuvre is he typically stumbles upon really good ideas for movies, and then so thoroughly botches the execution that you're ashamed to still be sitting in the theater after two and a half hours.”

    GreenCine Daily: Blood Diamond.

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘oeuvre’.

Comments

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  • seanahan I had to debate whether or not I liked this one enough to list it, since it sounds too Frenchy, but I decided it made the cut. Dec 2, 2006

‘oeuvre’ has been looked up 2484 times, loved by 10 people, added to 90 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 9.