Genre meaning of word

Genre (from French genre ‘kind, or sort’^[1]) is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time.^[2] In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other forms of art or entertainment, whether written or spoken, audio or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria, yet genres can be aesthetic, rhetorical, communicative, or functional. Genres form by conventions that change over time as cultures invent new genres and discontinue the use of old ones.^[3] Often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. Stand-alone texts, works, or pieces of communication may have individual styles, but genres are amalgams of these texts based on agreed-upon or socially inferred conventions. Some genres may have rigid, strictly adhered-to guidelines, while others may show great flexibility.

Genre began^{[clarification needed]} as an absolute classification system for ancient Greek literature, as set out in Aristotle’s Poetics.^[4] For Aristotle, poetry (odes, epics, etc.), prose, and performance each had specific design features that supported appropriate content of each genre. Speech patterns for comedy would not be appropriate for tragedy, for example, and even actors were restricted to their genre under the assumption that a type of person could tell one type of story best.

Genres proliferate and develop beyond Aristotle’s classifications in response to changes in audiences and creators.^[5] Genre has become a dynamic tool to help the public make sense out of unpredictability through artistic expression. Given that art is often a response to a social state, in that people write, paint, sing, dance, and otherwise produce art about what they know about, the use of genre as a tool must be able to adapt to changing meanings.

Musician Ezra LaFleur argues that discussion of genre should draw from Ludwig Wittgenstein’s idea of family resemblance.^[6] Genres are helpful labels for communicating but do not necessarily have a single attribute that is the essence of the genre.

Visual arts[edit]

The term genre is much used in the history and criticism of visual art, but in art history has meanings that overlap rather confusingly. Genre painting is a term for paintings where the main subject features human figures to whom no specific identity attaches – in other words, figures are not portraits, characters from a story, or allegorical personifications. These are distinguished from staffage: incidental figures in what is primarily a landscape or architectural painting. Genre painting may also be used as a wider term covering genre painting proper, and other specialized types of paintings such as still-life, landscapes, marine paintings and animal paintings.

The concept of the «hierarchy of genres» was a powerful one in artistic theory, especially between the 17th and 19th centuries. It was strongest in France, where it was associated with the Académie française which held a central role in academic art. The genres in hierarchical order are:

• History painting, including narrative, religious, mythological and allegorical subjects
• Portrait painting
• Genre painting or scenes of everyday life
• Landscape (landscapists were the «common footmen in the Army of Art» according to the Dutch theorist Samuel van Hoogstraten) and cityscape
• Animal painting
• Still life

Literature[edit]

A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or even (as in the case of fiction) length. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as either adult, young adult, or children’s. They also must not be confused with format, such as graphic novel or picture book. The distinctions between genres and categories are flexible and loosely defined, often with subgroups.

The most general genres in literature are (in loose chronological order) epic, tragedy,^[7] comedy, novel, and short story. They can all be in the genres prose or poetry, which shows best how loosely genres are defined. Additionally, a genre such as satire might appear in any of the above, not only as a subgenre but as a mixture of genres. Finally, they are defined by the general cultural movement of the historical period in which they were composed. In popular fiction, which is especially divided by genres, genre fiction is the more usual term.

In literature, genre has been known as an intangible taxonomy. This taxonomy implies a concept of containment or that an idea will be stable forever. The earliest recorded systems of genre in Western history can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle. Gérard Genette, a French literary theorist and author of The Architext, describes Plato as creating three Imitational genres: dramatic dialogue, pure narrative, and epic (a mixture of dialogue and narrative). Lyric poetry, the fourth and final type of Greek literature, was excluded by Plato as a non-mimetic mode. Aristotle later revised Plato’s system by eliminating the pure narrative as a viable mode and distinguishing by two additional criteria: the object to be imitated, as objects could be either superior or inferior, and the medium of presentation such as words, gestures or verse. Essentially, the three categories of mode, object, and medium dialogue, epic (superior-mixed narrative), comedy (inferior-dramatic dialogue), and parody (inferior-mixed narrative). Genette continues by explaining the later integration of lyric poetry into the classical system during the romantic period, replacing the now removed pure narrative mode. Lyric poetry, once considered non-mimetic, was deemed to imitate feelings, becoming the third leg of a new tripartite system: lyrical, epical, and dramatic dialogue. This system, which came to «dominate all the literary theory of German romanticism (and therefore well beyond)…» (38), has seen numerous attempts at expansion or revision. However, more ambitious efforts to expand the tripartite system resulted in new taxonomic systems of increasing scope and complexity.

Genette reflects upon these various systems, comparing them to the original tripartite arrangement: «its structure is somewhat superior to…those that have come after, fundamentally flawed as they are by their inclusive and hierarchical taxonomy, which each time immediately brings the whole game to a standstill and produces an impasse» (74). Taxonomy allows for a structured classification system of genre, as opposed to a more contemporary rhetorical model of genre.

Film[edit]

The basic genres of film can be regarded as drama, in the feature film and most cartoons, and documentary. Most dramatic feature films, especially from Hollywood fall fairly comfortably into one of a long list of film genres such as the Western, war film, horror film, romantic comedy film, musical, crime film, and many others. Many of these genres have a number of subgenres, for example by setting or subject, or a distinctive national style, for example in the Indian Bollywood musical.

Music[edit]

A music genre is a conventional category that identifies pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions.^[8] It is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably.^{[citation needed]} There are numerous genres in Western classical music and popular music, as well as musical theatre and the music of non-Western cultures. The term is now perhaps over-used to describe relatively small differences in musical style in modern rock music, that also may reflect sociological differences in their audiences.^{[citation needed]} Timothy Laurie suggests that in the context of rock and pop music studies, the «appeal of genre criticism is that it makes narratives out of musical worlds that often seem to lack them».^[9]

Music can be divided into different genres in several ways. The artistic nature of music means that these classifications are often arbitrary and controversial, and some genres may overlap. There are several academic approaches to genres. In his book Form in Tonal Music, Douglass M. Green lists madrigal, motet, canzona, ricercar, and dance as examples of genres from the Renaissance period. According to Green, «Beethoven’s Op. 61 and Mendelssohn’s Op. 64 are identical in genre – both are violin concertos – but different in form. However, Mozart’s Rondo for Piano, K. 511, and the Agnus Dei from his Mass, K. 317 are quite different in genre but happen to be similar in form.»^[10] Some, like Peter van der Merwe, treat the terms genre and style as the same, saying that genre should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or «basic musical language».^[11]

Others, such as Allan F. Moore, state that genre and style are two separate terms, and that secondary characteristics such as subject matter can also differentiate between genres.^[12] A music genre or subgenre may be defined by the musical techniques, the styles, the context, and content and spirit of the themes. Geographical origin is sometimes used to identify a music genre, though a single geographical category will often include a wide variety of subgenres.

Several music scholars have criticized the priority accorded to genre-based communities and listening practices. For example, Laurie argues that «music genres do not belong to isolated, self-sufficient communities. People constantly move between environments where diverse forms of music are heard, advertised and accessorised with distinctive iconographies, narratives and celebrity identities that also touch on non-musical worlds.»^[9]

Popular culture and other media[edit]

The concept of genre is often applied, sometimes rather loosely, to other media with an artistic element, such as video game genres. Genre, and numerous minutely divided subgenres, affect popular culture very significantly, not least as they are used to classify it for publicity purposes. The vastly increased output of popular culture in the age of electronic media encourages dividing cultural products by genre to simplify the search for products by consumers, a trend the Internet has only intensified.

Linguistics[edit]

In philosophy of language, genre figures prominently in the works of philosopher and literary scholar Mikhail Bakhtin. Bakhtin’s basic observations were of «speech genres» (the idea of heteroglossia), modes of speaking or writing that people learn to mimic, weave together, and manipulate (such as «formal letter» and «grocery list», or «university lecture» and «personal anecdote»). In this sense, genres are socially specified: recognized and defined (often informally) by a particular culture or community. The work of Georg Lukács also touches on the nature of literary genres, appearing separately but around the same time (1920s–1930s) as Bakhtin. Norman Fairclough has a similar concept of genre that emphasizes the social context of the text: Genres are «different ways of (inter)acting discoursally» (Fairclough, 2003: 26).

A text’s genre may be determined by its:

1. Linguistic function.
2. Formal traits.
3. Textual organization.
4. Relation of communicative situation to formal and organizational traits of the text (Charaudeau and Maingueneau, 2002:278–280).

Rhetoric[edit]

In the field of rhetoric, genre theorists usually understand genres as types of actions rather than types or forms of texts.^[13] On this perspective, texts are channels through which genres are enacted. Carolyn Miller’s^[14] work has been especially important for this perspective. Drawing on Lloyd Bitzer’s concept of rhetorical situation,^[15] Miller reasons that recurring rhetorical problems tend to elicit recurring responses; drawing on Alfred Schütz,^[16] she reasons that these recurring responses become «typified» – that is, socially constructed as recognizable types. Miller argues that these «typified rhetorical actions» (p. 151) are properly understood as genres.

Building off of Miller, Charles Bazerman and Clay Spinuzzi have argued that genres understood as actions derive their meaning from other genres – that is, other actions. Bazerman therefore proposes that we analyze genres in terms of «genre systems»,^[17] while Spinuzzi prefers the closely related concept of «genre ecologies».^[18] Reiff and Bawarshi define genre analysis as a critical reading of people’s patterns of communication in different situations.^[13]

This tradition has had implications for the teaching of writing in American colleges and universities. Combining rhetorical genre theory with activity theory, David Russell has proposed that standard English composition courses are ill-suited to teach the genres that students will write in other contexts across the university and beyond.^[19] Elizabeth Wardle contends that standard composition courses do teach genres, but that these are inauthentic «mutt genres» that are often of little use outside of composition courses.^[20]

Genre is effective as a tool in rhetoric because it allows a speaker to set the context for a rhetorical discussion. Devitt, Reiff, and Bawarshi suggest that rhetorical genres may be assigned based on careful analysis of the subject matter and consideration of the audience.^[21]

Genre is related to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s theory of Family resemblance in which he describes how genres act like a family tree, where members of a family are related, but not exact copies of one another. ^[22]

History[edit]

This concept of genre originated from the classification systems created by Plato. Plato divided literature into the three classic genres accepted in Ancient Greece: poetry, drama, and prose. Poetry is further subdivided into epic, lyric, and drama. The divisions are recognized as being set by Aristotle and Plato; however, they were not the only ones. Many genre theorists added to these accepted forms of poetry.

Classical and Romance genre theory[edit]

The earliest recorded systems of genre in Western history can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle. Gérard Genette explains his interpretation of the history of genre in «The Architext». He described Plato as the creator of three imitational, mimetic genres distinguished by mode of imitation rather than content. These three imitational genres include dramatic dialogue, the drama; pure narrative, the dithyramb; and a mixture of the two, the epic. Plato excluded lyric poetry as a non-mimetic, imitational mode. Genette further discussed how Aristotle revised Plato’s system by first eliminating the pure narrative as a viable mode. He then uses two additional criteria to distinguish the system. The first of the criteria is the object to be imitated, whether superior or inferior. The second criterion is the medium of presentation: words, gestures, or verse. Essentially, the three categories of mode, object, and medium can be visualized along an XYZ axis. Excluding the criteria of medium, Aristotle’s system distinguished four types of classical genres: tragedy, epic, comedy, and parody.

Genette explained the integration of lyric poetry into the classical system by replacing the removed pure narrative mode. Lyric poetry, once considered non-mimetic, was deemed to imitate feelings, becoming the third «Architext», a term coined by Gennette, of a new long-enduring tripartite system: lyrical; epical, the mixed narrative; and dramatic, the dialogue. This new system that came to «dominate all the literary theory of German romanticism» (Genette 38) has seen numerous attempts at expansion and revision. Such attempts include Friedrich Schlegel’s triad of subjective form, the lyric; objective form, the dramatic; and subjective-objective form, the epic. However, more ambitious efforts to expand the tripartite system resulted in new taxonomic systems of increasing complexity. Gennette reflected upon these various systems, comparing them to the original tripartite arrangement: «its structure is somewhat superior to most of those that have come after, fundamentally flawed as they are by their inclusive and hierarchical taxonomy, which each time immediately brings the whole game to a standstill and produces an impasse».

Audiences[edit]

Although genres are not always precisely definable, genre considerations are one of the most important factors in determining what a person will see or read. The classification properties of genre can attract or repel potential users depending on the individual’s understanding of a genre.

Genre creates an expectation in that expectation is met or not. Many genres have built-in audiences and corresponding publications that support them, such as magazines and websites. Inversely, audiences may call out for change in an antecedent genre and create an entirely new genre.

The term may be used in categorizing web pages, like «news page» and «fan page», with both very different layout, audience, and intention (Rosso, 2008). Some search engines like Vivísimo try to group found web pages into automated categories in an attempt to show various genres the search hits might fit.

Subgenre[edit]

A subgenre is a subordinate within a genre,^[23][24] Two stories being the same genre can still sometimes differ in subgenre. For example, if a fantasy story has darker and more frightening elements of fantasy, it would belong in the subgenre of dark fantasy; whereas another fantasy story that features magic swords and wizards would belong to the subgenre of sword and sorcery.

Microgenre[edit]

A microgenre is a highly specialized, narrow classification of a cultural practice. The term has come into usage in the 21st century, and most commonly refers to music.^[25] It is also associated with the hyper-specific categories used in recommendations for television shows and movies on digital streaming platforms such as Netflix, and is sometimes used more broadly by scholars analyzing niche forms in other periods and other media.^[26]

See also[edit]

• List of genres

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Sources[edit]

Further readings[edit]

• Pare, Anthony. «Genre and Identity». The Rhetoric and Ideology of Genre: Strategies for Stability and Change. Eds. Richard M. Coe, Lorelei Lingard, and Tatiana Teslenko. Creskill, N.J.: Hampton Press, 2002.ISBN 978-1572733848.
• Sullivan, Ceri (2007) «Disposable elements? Indications of genre in early modern titles», Modern Language Review 102.3, pp. 641–653.

External links[edit]

• Genres of film at the Internet Movie Database
• Helping Children Understand Literary Genres
• Rhetorica Genre Archived 2021-02-24 at the Wayback Machine
• Museum of Broadcast Communications Archived 2013-05-14 at the Wayback Machine
• Dictionary.com

Last Updated:
10 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

The great gestures, the large-scale maps, the grand manner are for history and epic, but genre for the novel — and what _genre_ is so momentous to it as the human? ❋ Maurice Hewlett (1892)

Writers making serious dough in genre is good news for everyone. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The traditional meaning of the term genre has been distorted. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Exorbitant claims are inherent in another title genre: things that have changed the world. ❋ Unknown (2009)

The use of the term genre is difficult as it’s less a commercial genre as it is a fan genre coming primarily out of fiction literature gradually expanding into the cinema. ❋ Unknown (2008)

LNN: Some of the traits that separate your projects from other short films in the genre is the high production value and the acting. ❋ Unknown (2009)

I also think that writers like Christina Dodd and Karen Robards returning to the genre is a very good thing. ❋ Unknown (2010)

I think that the puzzle could be clarified if we are absolutely clear about what the genre is here; not «rap» but «rap artists stocked by Tower Records». ❋ Unknown (2009)

«I’m not used to this genre,» she announces before declaring, rightly, that it’s the first time the word «genre» has been used in panto. ❋ Unknown (2011)

Then I noticed that the genre is also a mirror to better reflect the dark side of human beings. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Taboos in scifi-fantasy fiction as asked of «writers» of this genre is the question, I am a reader, so I do not have to stick to the issue like a fly in a web. ❋ Unknown (2009)

There were problems, birth pains, if you will, but the enthusiasm of the 3500 fans who attended was a reminder of why this genre is a living, growing community …. ❋ Lou Anders (2008)

To be elevated above the genre is a transcendent death and the birth of Literature, but as these movements harden, coalesce, are named, they fall back as subgeneric moments of SF. ❋ Hal Duncan (2008)

The last issue with the genre is the poor execution. ❋ Unknown (2008)

David was nominated for a Pulitzer and even though my genre is about as far away from his as one can get and still both be called fiction, he’s shouted from the rooftops and beat the drums in support. ❋ Unknown (2008)

Past the to-ing and fro-ing and scene dressing, the genre is about the search for a reliable truth. ❋ Unknown (2008)

Examples of film genres could include: Action, Comedy, Drama, [Romance], Kids, [Horror], [Science Fiction]. ❋ Bluemovieboi (2006)

[My favorite] genre is [Science Fiction]. ❋ Downstrike (2004)

I was once [kicked out] of a music [chat room] based on the «metal» genre because I listen to «[nu-metal]». ❋ Nine.inch.needles (2004)

Examples of «genres» include:
[Literature]: Fantasy, [Romance]
Music: [Death metal], Country ❋ Zeei (2006)

Examples of film genres could include: Action, Comedy, Drama, [Romance], Kids, [Horror], [Science Fiction]. ❋ Bluemovieboi (2006)

I gave u a example [up there]!!!! Genres r like [labels] and ppl should » Put labels on [soup cans] NOT ppl» ❋ Kelly (2005)

The [genre] of [death metal] ❋ LarsTaiT (2003)

post-emopop punk-core (a genreful [version] of the more [simple] ‘pop’ [genre]). ❋ Aktion (2006)

Me: So you listen to metal?
Genre Fag: I don’t listen to [metal man], I only listen to post punk [harmonic] death [core]. ❋ Toxicmind (2009)

I found them to be genre challenged as they were [stuck] on [the music] they listened to in their [teens]. ❋ Mike Motschko (2007)

Different genres include poetry, novels, plays, short fiction, blogs, letters, etc. Some genres branch off into subgenres. For example, there are many more types of short fiction: the novella, novelette, short story, flash fiction, micro fiction, and six-word stories. The distinction between the short fiction subgenres is dependent on their word count. Genres are not themes. Genres are used to categorise literature, while themes are what a specific story is about.

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) is categorised as romance fiction because it is told from a female perspective. The plot is focused on a romantic relationship between two people, with an optimistic ending when the main couple marries. Romantic pronouncements are also common in romance fiction, for the sensual tone of the following words matches the romance fiction category:

In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.

An elegy is a type of poem. Elegies are categorised by their laments for the dead, the use of elegiac couplets and epitaphs, or feature serious reflections on nature and death. Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard‘ (1751) is the most famous example of an elegy for its meditation on death.

Compared to Mr Darcy’s passionate confession of love, the tone of Gray’s poem is mournful, is set in a churchyard, and uses phrases such as ‘parting day’, ‘weary’ and ‘darkness’ as associations to death.

Genre criteria can be assessed by:

• The overall look and imagery of the work (its aesthetic qualities).
• How language is used to imply a genre (its rhetoric).
• The literary techniques used by the author to communicate the themes and conventions of the genre (its communicative qualities).
• The overall purpose of the work; ie how genre supports the message of the novel (its function).

History of genre

The genre began as an absolute (fixed) classification system for Ancient Greek literature, which Plato and Aristotle (in Poetics, 335 BC) explored in their literary and dramatic theories of poetry and drama. In Aristotle’s time, literary works were categorised according to who is speaking in the text. There were three basic kinds of text:

Aristotle defined several specific genres: epic, tragedy, comedy, and satire. For Aristotle, poetry, prose, and performance had specific design features which were appropriate for their genres. Mixing up language patterns and genres would not work well. The speech patterns from one of Shakespeare’s comedies would look very strange in his tragedies.

Tip: Think about how the comedic lines and puns in the play Much Ado About Nothing would sound in Macbeth’s dark and murderous setting.

Since the eighteenth century, new genres have been added. These include biography, essay, and the novel, all of which weakened the concept of fixed genres. The short lyric poem replaced the genres of epic and tragedy as the quintessential poetic type, and from the Romantic Period there was widespread use of criteria for evaluating literature — such as ‘sincerity’, ‘intensity’, ‘high seriousness’.

After 1950, an emphasis on genres was revived through a number of principles of classification. Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye proposed an archetypal theory in which the four major genres of comedy, romance, tragedy, and satire are «held to manifest the enduring forms bodied forth by human imagination.» ¹ Many current critics regard genres as arbitrary modes of classification, while some structuralist critics conceive genre as a set of conventions and codes that make possible the writing of a particular literary text. Ludwig Wittgenstein applied the idea of family resemblance to genres. Family trees allow us to group subgenres with some resemblances (but not all) to certain genres.

Some critics and authors resist having works labelled according to a genre because they worry the literary text would be pigeon-holed. This might undermine the seriousness of the text, and mean that their work is judged by categories that do not accurately fit the text.

Tip: Some authors have no issue crossing or mixing genres in their works (such as Stephen King, China Mieville, and Anne Carson). Do not stress trying to apply one genre to one text!

Genres are based on explicitly agreed or socially inferred conventions. They may have strict or flexible guidelines which help with the reader’s expectations of the plot and setting.

Although ‘genre’ is a term with a specific meaning, it can be a confusing concept to grasp if you’re unfamiliar with it. Here are some synonyms of ‘genre’ to help you better understand the term:

• Group
• Category
• Set
• Type
• Sort
• Variety
• Class

Common fiction genres are:

• Classic (Literary) Fiction: A work of literary merit and aesthetic value. These works are character-driven rather than plot-driven.
• Contemporary Fiction: Fiction set in the same time period as the reader depending on when (or where) the reader lived.
• Fantasy: works with imaginary settings and characters, usually with some sort of worldbuilding or magic. Many writers choose to rework folklore and mythology to tap into or increase the reader’s familiarity.
• Historical: Novels set in the past that usually feature historical events and figures. Historical fiction often relies on a blend of realism and imagination.
• Science Fiction: Fiction concerned with scientific or futuristic settings, with either dystopian or utopian themes. It is a type of speculative fiction which features time travel, space travel, parallel universes and futuristic technology.

• (Black Mirror (2011) and Star Trek are perhaps the most famous examples of this genre).

• Bildungsroman: The Coming-of-Age narrative usually explores the character’s life from childhood to adulthood, and their navigation through society and questions of morality.
• Romance: Focuses on a romantic relationship which leads to a happy resolution. It is often confused with the literary fiction form of Romance.
• Realism: The depiction of realistic events and settings to either critique society or explore the everyday lives of characters.
• Horror: Fiction that aims to frighten, shock, or disgust readers. The genre takes inspiration from Gothic fiction and often features terrifying creatures or common everyday fears.
• Crime: The fictional representation of crime, criminals, and police procedurals. Suspense and mystery are crucial to the plot.

Historical Fiction Genre Criteria:	Crime Fiction Genre Criteria:
May be based on events, periods, or people of the past which happened.	Exploration of a type of crime, and / or focus on victims and their suffering.
Believable or accurate historical research and evidence are present.	Settings are backdrops for criminal investigation or action.
Plot centres on a major or minor historical event.	Violence, murder, theft, or drugs are included.
Elements of realism to the character’s life — or some form of authenticity to the period portrayed.	The idea is that criminals must be brought to justice.
Conflict and tension allow the reader to compare the present with the past.	Uses of register (a language variety used by a particular group of people who share the same occupation) and language to emphasize a crime motif: legal, police, courtroom terms.

Tip: Think about the layout of book shops. What genres are promoted the most in a bookshop? Which genres are the easiest to find in a bookshop? How many books from a particular genre are there in a section? Note what genres are in the top 10 best sellers, it might just tell you which genre is popular at the moment!

This depends on themes and the literary period!

Top Tip: Historical Romance is considered frivolous and fantasy fulfilment, while Literary historical fiction is favoured by literary critics for its philosophical approaches to representing the past. Do you believe it is fair to compare these genres and subgenres with each other when the plots of these works take place in a setting located in the past?

1	0   0 A class or category of texts with similarities in form, style, or subject matter. The definition of a genre changes over time, and a text often interacts with multiple genres. A text’s relationship [..]

2	0   0 Genre Relationships Related Term:  record type Distinguish From:  subject n. ~ A distinctive type of literary or artistic materials, usually characterized by style or function rather than subject, physica [..]

3	0   0 Genre 1 a particular style used in cinema, writing, or art, which can be recognized by certain featuresThe novel did not really exist as a genre before the 17th century.There’s a whole genre of films abou [..]

4	0   0 Genre A category of media texts characterized by a particular style, form or content.

5	0   0 Genre 1770, «particular style of art,» a French word in English (nativized from c. 1840), from French genre «kind, sort, style» (see gender (n.)). Used especially in French for «ind [..]

6	0   0 Genre A category of artistic practice having a particular form, content, or technique. Related: Paul Cézanne. Still Life with Apples. 1895–98 The Body in Art Surrealist Landscapes

7	0   0 Genre category of art.

8	0   0 Genre This is a French 19th-century term used in an art-historical context to describe a type of subject matter for painting. Such pictures were particularly favoured in the Netherlands in the 17th century [..]

9	0   0 Genre A type or category of literature or film marked by certain shared features or conventions. The three broadest categories of genre include poetry, drama, and fiction. These general genres are often sub [..]

10	0   0 Genre a kind of literary or artistic work writing style: a style of expressing yourself in writing music genre: an expressive style of music a class of art (or artistic endeavor) having a characteristic for [..]

11	0   0 Genre a category characterized by a particular style, form, or content. Common genres are action, adventure, role-play, strategy, and so on.

12	0   0 Genre A genre is a literary kind — and, in fact, the word means just that in French, a «kind» or «type.» The word is used with various degrees of precision. Some, for instance, [..]

13	0   0 Genre (from Latin genus, type, kind): works of literature tend to conform to certain types, or kinds. Thus we will describe a work as belonging to, for example, one of the following genres: epic, pastoral, [..]

14	0   0 Genre A term used to designate a type of literature according to its subject matter and how the subject is treated.

15	0   0 Genre A literary form; examples of literary genres are tragedy, comedy, epic, and novel. Generic classifications may appear simple on the surface, but one faces serious practical problems when one tries to [..]

16	0   0 Genre A major literary form, such as drama, poetry, and the novel.

17	0   0 Genre A category of artistic, musical or literary composition characterised by a particular style, form or content; a kind or type of work.

18	0   0 Genre The categories into which texts are grouped. The term has a complex history within literary and linguistic theory and is often used to distinguish texts on the basis of, for example, their subject mat [..]

19	0   0 Genre  – categories of literature: fiction, poetry, drama

20	0   0 Genre The general type or form of a literary work, e.g. poetry, drama, novel, short story. A sub-genre of poetry is, for example, lyric poetry. Hamartia

21	0   0 Genre originally a French word meaning "kind", "sort" or "type"; refers to a class or type of film (i.e., westerns, sci-fi, etc.) that shares common, pr [..]

22	0   0 Genre A category of classification for literature such as fiction, non-fiction, and so forth. Pronounced zhahn-ruh.

23	0   0 Genre Games like most other forms of media are categorized into genres based on gameplay, atmosphere and various other factors. Common game genres include FPS (first-person shooter), RTS (real-time strategy [..]

24	0   0 Genre Genre is a category used to classify discourse and literary works, usually by form, technique, or content.

25	0   0 Genre zhaner

26	0   0 Genre noun Definition: a painting of a particular style or from a particular time Word History: from Middle FrenchExample Sentence: The painting’s genre was classical.

27	0   0 Genre A type, class, or style of literature, music, film, or art. Genre criticism originated with Aristotle, who divided literature into three basic categories: dramatic, epic, and lyric. Today, literary wo [..]

28	0   0 Genre Style or manner. In music, a unique category of composition with similar style, form, emotion, or subject.

29	0   0 Genre A way of categorising different types of moving image texts. As it has a particular usage in Film Studies it can often sound clumsy or inappropriate when applied to other media forms, like video or te [..]

30	0   0 Genre A category of expression (art, oral tradition, literature) distinguished by a definite style, form, or content, such as folktales, legends, proverbs, ballads, or myths.

31	0   0 Genre (n) a kind of literary or artistic work(n) a style of expressing yourself in writing(n) an expressive style of music(n) a class of art (or artistic endeavor) having a characteristic form or techni [..]

32

0   0 Genre Genre refers to text types which learners meet in the school curriculum. Each genre has specific social purposes, particular overall structures and specific linguistic features shared by particular cultures. It also has a number of characteristics which make it different from other genres. Genre forms include advertisement, argument, article, autob [..]

33	0   0 Genre A category of literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content (e.g., an historical novel is one fictional genre).

34	0   0 Genre  Genre is a French word that means ‘type’. Films are classified into different genres. Notable genres include: action, adventure , comedy, crime, epic films, horror, musicals, science fiction, war films, westerns and film noir.

35	0   0 Genre Any category of art, music, film, literature, etc., based on a set of stylistic criteria.

36	0   0 Genre a type or category of music (e.g., sonata, opera, oratorio, art song, gospel, suite, jazz, madrigal, march, work song, lullaby, barbershop, Dixieland).

37	0   0 Genre [1] classification of music by some combination of function, medium, form, or idiom; examples are: opera

38	0   0 Genre The term used to identify a general category of music that shares similar performance forces, formal structures, and/or style-for example, «string quartet» or » 1 2-bar blues.»

39	0   0 Genre The category a story or script falls into — such as: thriller, romantic comedy, action, screwball comedy

40	0   0 Genre In a broad sense, the term is used to mean a particular branch or category of art; landscape and portraiture, for example, are genres of painting, and the essay and the short story are genres of liter [..]

41	0   0 Genre Style of film dictated by particular thematic conventions.

42	0   0 Genre A category marked by similar subject matter, style, and form. Examples of film and literary genres include horror, fantasy, comedy, and science fiction.

43	0   0 Genre a type of film for which audience have a set of particular expectations in regard to plot, style, tone, outcome, and theme.

44	0   0 Genre The French word for ‘type’ or ‘kind’. In film studies we speak of the ‘Gangster Genre’, the ‘Western Genre’ etc.

45	0   0 Genre A type of discourse that occurs in a particular setting, that has distinctive and recognizable patterns and norms of organization and structure, and that has particular and distinctive communicative functions

46	0   0 Genre Specific kinds of media content, e.g., entertainment, information, news, advertising, etc. Each category is defined with traditional conventions, but categories may overlap.

47	0   0 Genre The class or category of an object when considered as an intellectual work.

48	0   0 Genre refers to whatever type of literary theme that a story can be sorted as. Includes such common categories as drama, humour, romance, mystery, suspense, adventure, horror, fantasy, science fiction, hurt [..]

49	0   0 Genre The genre of a game refers to the method of play. Popular genres include simulation, strategy, action, and role-playing.

50	0   0 Genre A subject for many artists, it is depiction of people going about human interactive activities such as domestic chores, moving into frontiers, fighting or socializing. Genre paintings are often narrat [..]

51	0   0 Genre Genre, (French: «kind» or «sort») is a division of a particular form of art or utterance according to criteria particular to that form. In all art forms, genres are vague categorie [..]

52	0   0 Genre Type of painting concerned with the realistic depiction of subjects and scenes from everyday life. Genre paintings deal with ordinary life and common activities, including family life, sports, street [..]

53	0   0 Genre Art that depicts the casual moments of everyday life and its surroundings.

54	0   0 Genre  — (pronounced

55	0   0 Genre Genre refers to a type or category of artistic form, subject, technique, style or medium.

56	0   0 Genre This is a very standard type of art and can be found in all kinds of times and from all different places. The art depicts a normal and everyday event of life such as a farmer or a scene from a Dutch t [..]

57	0   0 Genre scenes of anonymous figures engaged in everyday activities; a category of subject matter in the fine arts (for example, the genre of landscape painting)

58	0   0 Genre depiction of scenes from everyday life — ordinary folks (plural is categories of subject matter — See ArtLex)

59	0   0 Genre General term describing the standard category and overall character of a work.

60	0   0 Genre Genre painting is Art that depicts subjects and scenes from everyday life, ordinary people and common activities. Also a type of painting can be identified by the Genre ie the genre of the painting is [..]

61	0   0 Genre

62	0   0 Genre

63	0   0 Genre A means of categorizing works of art based on style, form, and subject matter. For example, history painting and landscape are genres of painting; horror and romantic comedy are genres of film; detect [..]

64	0   0 Genre Genre. Say it out loud. Sounds fancy, right? Well, it’s not. It really just means «kind» in French. And that’s exactly what genre is: a kind. In our case, a kind of literature. Wha [..]

65	0   1 Genre a type or category of works sharing particular formal or textual features and conventions; especially used to refer to the largest categories for classifying literature—fiction, poetry, drama, and n [..]

Dictionary.university is a dictionary written by people like you and me.
Please help and add a word. All sort of words are welcome!

Add meaning