texture

See also: texturé

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French texture, borrowed from Latin textura (“a weaving, web, texture, structure”), from textus, past participle of texere (“to weave”). See text. Doublet of tessitura.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛkstʃə(ɹ)/, /ˈtɛkʃtʃə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -ɛkstʃə(ɹ)

Noun

texture (countable and uncountable, plural textures)

1. The feel or shape of a surface or substance; the smoothness, roughness, softness, etc. of something.

   The beans had a grainy, gritty texture in her mouth.

2. (art) The quality given to a work of art by the composition and interaction of its parts.

   The piece of music had a mainly homophonic texture.

3. (computer graphics) An image applied to a polygon to create the appearance of a surface.
   • 2004, Will Smith, Maximum PC Guide to Building a Dream PC (page 97)

     The videocard is responsible for drawing every polygon, texture, and particle effect in every game you play.

4. (obsolete) The act or art of weaving.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica

     Skins, although a natural habit unto all before the invention of texture, was something more unto Adam.

5. (obsolete) Something woven; a woven fabric; a web.
   • 1730, James Thomson, Spring

     Others, apart far in the grassy dale, / Or roughening waste, their humble texture weave.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

6. (biology, obsolete) A tissue.

Related terms

• context
• pretext
• subtext
• texel
• texton
• text
• textual
• textural

Translations

feel or shape of a surface or substance

• Catalan: textura (ca) f
• Arabic: مَلْمَس‎ (malmas)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 質地 (zh), 质地 (zh) (zhídì)

• Czech: struktura povrchu f
• Danish: tekstur c
• Dutch: textuur (nl)
• Finnish: tuntu (fi), tuntuma, rakenne (fi)
• French: texture (fr) f
• Galician: textura f
• German: Textur (de) f

• Maori: kakano
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tekstur m

  Nynorsk: tekstur m

• Romanian: țesătură (ro) f, textură (ro) f
• Russian: строе́ние (ru) n (strojénije), структу́ра (ru) f (struktúra), тексту́ра (ru) f (tekstúra), ткань (ru) f (tkanʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: dèanamh m
• Slovak: štruktúra povrchu f
• Spanish: textura (es) f
• Welsh: gwead (cy) m

art: quality produced by interaction of elements

• Catalan: textura (ca) f
• Finnish: rakenne (fi)

• French: texture (fr) f
• Romanian: calitate a țesăturii f

computer graphics: image applied to a polygon

• Catalan: textura (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 質地 (zh), 质地 (zh) (zhídì)

• Czech: textura f
• Dutch: textuur (nl)
• Finnish: tekstuuri (fi)

• French: texture (fr) m
• German: Textur (de) f
• Italian: texture (it) f
• Japanese: テクスチャ (tekusucha)
• Romanian: textură (ro) f
• Russian: тексту́ра (ru) f (tekstúra)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} textuur (nl)
• Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} áferð (is)

• Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 纹理 (zh)
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} textura (es) f

Verb

texture (third-person singular simple present textures, present participle texturing, simple past and past participle textured)

1. to create or apply a texture

   Drag the trowel through the plaster to texture the wall.

Further reading

• texture in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• texture in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911.

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French

Etymology

From Middle French texture, borrowed from Latin textura (“a weaving, web, texture, structure”), from textus, past participle of texere (“to weave”). See text.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɛk.styʁ/

Noun

texture f (plural textures)

1. texture

Related terms

• texte

Further reading

• “texture” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Latin

Participle

textūre

1. vocative masculine singular of textūrus