texture

See also: texturé

English

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

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

   The piece of music had a mainly smooth 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.
   • Sir Thomas Browne

     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.
   • Thomson

     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

Translations

feel or shape of a surface or substance

• Catalan: textura (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 質地 (zh), 质地 (zh) (zhídì)

• Dutch: textuur (nl)
• Finnish: tuntu, 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
• 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

---

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.

Noun

texture f (plural textures)

1. texture

Further reading

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

---

Latin

Participle

textūre

1. vocative masculine singular of textūrus