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What is the difference between figure and shape?

figure | shape |

In obsolete terms the difference between figure and shape

is that figure is to prefigure; to foreshow while shape is to imagine; to conceive.

In transitive terms the difference between figure and shape

is that figure is to enter, be a part of while shape is to give something a shape and definition.

As nouns the difference between figure and shape

is that figure is a drawing or diagram conveying information while shape is the status or condition of something.

As verbs the difference between figure and shape

is that figure is to solve a mathematical problem while shape is to give something a shape and definition.

figure

English

(wikipedia figure)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A drawing or diagram conveying information.
  • *
  • The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modelling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body.
  • a figure''' in bronze; a '''figure cut in marble
  • * Shakespeare
  • a coin that bears the figure of an angel
  • A person or thing representing a certain consciousness.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
  • , volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures .}}
  • The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career of a person.
  • He cut a sorry figure standing there in the rain.
  • * Dryden
  • I made some figure there.
  • * Blackstone
  • gentlemen of the best figure in the county
  • (obsolete) Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendour; show.
  • * Law
  • that he may live in figure and indulgence
  • A human figure, which dress or corset must fit to; the shape of a human body.
  • *
  • A numeral.
  • A number.
  • *
  • A shape.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Flowers have all exquisite figures .
  • *
  • A visible pattern as in wood or cloth.
  • The muslin was of a pretty figure .
  • A dance figure, a complex dance move(w).
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness,
  • A figure of speech.
  • * Macaulay
  • to represent the imagination under the figure of a wing
  • (logic) The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term.
  • (astrology) A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses.
  • (Johnson)
  • (music) Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression.
  • (Grove)
  • (music) A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a motif; a florid embellishment.
  • Derived terms

    (Terms derived from the noun) * academy figure * action figure * authority figure * big figure * dark figure * cut a figure * father figure * figure dash * figure eight * figurehead * figureless * figure loom * figure of eight * figure of merit * figure of speech * figure poem * figure skating * four-figure * hate figure * hourglass figure * lay figure * Lissajous figure * mother figure * musical figure * plane figure * public figure * significant figure * snow figure * stick figure * terminal figure * text figure * three-figure * two-figure

    Verb

    (mainly US)
  • To solve a mathematical problem.
  • To come to understand.
  • I can't figure if he's telling the truth or lying.
  • To be reasonable.
  • To enter, be a part of.
  • (obsolete) To represent by a figure, as to form or mould; to make an image of, either palpable or ideal; also, to fashion into a determinate form; to shape.
  • * Prior
  • If love, alas! be pain I bear, / No thought can figure , and no tongue declare.
  • To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.
  • * Shakespeare
  • The vaulty top of heaven / Figured quite o'er with burning meteors.
  • (obsolete) To indicate by numerals.
  • * Dryden
  • As through a crystal glass the figured hours are seen.
  • To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize.
  • * Shakespeare
  • whose white vestments figure innocence
  • (obsolete) To prefigure; to foreshow.
  • * Shakespeare
  • In this the heaven figures some event.
  • (music) To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.
  • (music) To embellish.
  • Derived terms

    * go figure * prefigure * figure out (US)

    Statistics

    *

    shape

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The status or condition of something
  • The used bookshop wouldn't offer much due to the poor shape of the book.
  • Condition of personal health, especially muscular health.
  • The vet checked to see what kind of shape the animal was in.
    We exercise to keep in good physical shape .
  • The appearance of something, especially its outline.
  • He cut a square shape out of the cake.
  • A figure with unspecified appearance; especially a geometric figure.
  • What shape shall we use for the cookies? Stars, circles, or diamonds?
  • Form; formation.
  • * 2006 , Berdj Kenadjian, Martin Zakarian, From Darkness to Light :
  • What if God's plans and actions do mold the shape of human events?
  • (iron manufacture) A rolled or hammered piece, such as a bar, beam, angle iron, etc., having a cross section different from merchant bar.
  • (iron manufacture) A piece which has been roughly forged nearly to the form it will receive when completely forged or fitted.
  • A mould for making jelly, blancmange etc., or a piece of such food formed moulded into a particular shape.
  • *1918 , (Rebecca West), The Return of the Soldier , Virago 2014, p. 74:
  • *:‘And if I'm late for supper there's a dish of macaroni cheese you must put in the oven and a tin of tomatoes to eat with it. And there's a little rhubarb and shape .’
  • Hyponyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * contest shape * * in no shape to * * in shape * out of shape * shapeless * shapely * shapesmith * shape-shifter * shape-shifting * shipshape * take shape * the shape of things to come * whip into shape

    See also

    *

    Verb

  • To give something a shape and definition.
  • * 1932 , The American Scholar , page 227, United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa
  • The professor never pretended to the academic prerogative of forcing his students into his own channels of reasoning; he entered into and helped shape the discussion but above all he made his men learn to think for themselves and rely upon their own intellectual judgments.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}
  • To form or manipulate something into a certain shape.
  • * Prior
  • Grace shaped her limbs, and beauty decked her face.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 29, author=Mark Vesty, work=BBC
  • , title= Wigan 2-2 Arsenal , passage=Bendtner's goal-bound shot was well saved by goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi but fell to Arsahvin on the edge of the area and the Russian swivelled, shaped his body and angled a sumptuous volley into the corner. }}
  • (of a country, person, etc) To give influence to.
  • To suit; to be adjusted or conformable.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) To imagine; to conceive.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Oft my jealousy / Shapes faults that are not.

    Synonyms

    * (give shape) form, mold

    Derived terms

    * beshape * foreshape * forshape * misshape * overshape * shape up

    Anagrams

    * * * 1000 English basic words