Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The face or facial expression of a person; countenance.
- n. Appearance; aspect: the bleak visage of winter.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal: chiefly applied to human beings; hence, in general, appearance; aspect.
- n. Synonyms Countenance, etc. See face.
- To face; confront; brave.
- To put a (certain) face upon; make (a thing) appear in a (certain) fashion.
Wiktionary
- n. Countenance; appearance; one's face.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face.
- v. obsolete To face.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the appearance conveyed by a person's face
- n. the human face (`kisser' and `smiler' and `mug' are informal terms for `face' and `phiz' is British)
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French vis, from Medieval Latin as if *visaticum, from Latin visus ("a look, vision"), from videre ("to see"), past participle visus; see vision, and compare vis. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from vis, from Latin vīsus, appearance, from past participle of vidēre, to see; see weid- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“When reading the first five-issue story arc, from the covers drawn by the Sharp Brothers to Molnar's closing image of Zeus within the pages of the first issue, it becomes quickly apparent that Zeus 'physical visage is based on Chiklis' own image.”
“These days, maintenance of the Golden Temple's exquisite visage is entrusted to one single man: 67-year-old Takesato Yagyu.”
“Alas though my visage is seen, my name is absent from the article, as I am referred to as the anonymous "Mr. Drinkwater's second".”
“I'm not exactly Stephen King -- people don't know my name, my frightening visage is not seen in the front row of Yankees/Red Sox games, and oh yeah, millions of people don't buy my books based on the byline alone -- but I get asked the above question relatively often.”
“To the people of the Western Hemisphere and Western Europe -- and to at least some in Asia -- the Communist visage is again what it was in 1952.”
“Lord, despised of man, abhorred of the nation, but before whom kings on seeing Him are to arise, and princes to worship; in visage more marred than any man and His form than the sons of men, yet sprinkling many nations; laboring seemingly in vain, and spending His strength for naught and in vain, yet Jehovah's Servant to raise up the tribes of”
“The speaker was a tall, shambling, loose-jointed man, with a long, thin visage, prominent watery blue eyes, very fluttering and seedy habiliments, who occupied the responsible position of first do-nothing-in-ordinary in our village of Oldtown, and as such I must introduce him to my readers 'notice.”
“Ralph looked on him and deemed he had seen him before, but could not altogether call his visage to mind; so he held his peace and the man went on.”
“There was so much plausibility, and, in fact, so much truth in all this, that conviction was unwillingly admitted by Borroughcliffe, who walked aside a moment to conceal the confusion which, in spite of his ordinary inflexibility of countenance, he felt was manifesting itself in his rubric visage, while he muttered:”
“But now their visage is marred (as is said of Christ, Isa.lii. 14); it is blacker than a coal; they look miserably, partly through hunger and partly through grief and perplexity.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘visage’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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Muse's tacet ,to learn
Music brings silence's to raging thoughts and temperament , calm, as it is our object of definite purpose.
tacet, cadence, tempo, treble clef, penultimate, lexicon, origin, orchestra, kantele, magus, eros, coalesce and 248 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
( open list )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/macabrephantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 311 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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the best words in french
it doesn't matter if you can speak french or not to add the word. you can add it for the way it sounds or what it means. it can only be one word. if you add it for what it means, comment on the lis...
pamplemousse, adieu, au revoir, visage, thé, louche, odalisque, perdu, absintheur, glibette, hibou, pommadeur and 9 more...
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Franco
fin-de-siècle, sang-froid, minatory, loup, son et lumière, bonhomie, l'heure bleue, frippery, pamplemousse, adieu, au revoir, visage and 22 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1906 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for visage.

bilby WeirdNet. Oct 13, 2008
yarb Wasn't there a new romantic outfit of this name? Jun 18, 2008
kewpid This makes me think of Ozymandias. Jun 18, 2008
johnmperry re the definition - has anyone actually heard the word phiz used since Dickens? (short for physiognomy) Jun 18, 2008
dgstone I like how severe this word sounds when said out loud. Mar 13, 2008