Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A work of art.
  • noun The sum of the lifework of an artist, writer, or composer.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A work of art.
  • noun The complete body of an artist's work.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the total output of a writer or artist (or a substantial part of it)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French œuvre, from Old French uevre, work, from Latin opera, from pl. of opus, work; see opus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French œuvre, from the Latin opus.

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Examples

  • I've read a bit of her stuff online, and one thing I notice that seems to be missing from her oeuvre is her own romantic past.

    IsThatLegal? 2003

  • The general theme permeating the Appleyard oeuvre, is to suggest that humans have needs which, in general, they don't actually have, such as the need for 'the sacred', and the need for 'spiritual depth', and to suggest that science is a threat because it threatens these needs.

    Archive 2009-01-01 Gordon McCabe 2009

  • Indeed, the entire oeuvre is more a mirror than I thought: the Stooges weren't the Stooges because they did what was familiar to them.

    History lessons from Larry, Moe, and Curly 2009

  • Connie Willis came to mind, but I must admit that my knowledge of her oeuvre is decidedly lacking.

    MIND MELD: Who Should Be The Next Grand Master? 2010

  • I strongly suspect that the convention of the oeuvre is that the horrible things threatening the sympathetic characters will not come to pass.

    Barnstorming on an Invisible Segway 2009

  • While the breadth of Marv Albert's cinematic oeuvre is substantial, he's been narrowly typecast: He always plays a sportscaster — specifically, always himself.

    Marv of the movies: Always in character 2008

  • But ‘Minus One’, contextualised with the rest of the oeuvre, is completely baffling.

    Ballardian » Simon Brook's Minus One 2008

  • Despite the fact this sounds more like a desperate request for prescribed drugs, I am addicted so it does mean that the rest of his oeuvre is on its way.

    IceBooks 2006

  • Despite the fact this sounds more like a desperate request for prescribed drugs, I am addicted so it does mean that the rest of his oeuvre is on its way.

    IceBooks 2006

  • Despite the fact this sounds more like a desperate request for prescribed drugs, I am addicted so it does mean that the rest of his oeuvre is on its way.

    48 entries from November 2006 2006

Comments

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  • I had to debate whether or not I liked this one enough to list it, since it sounds too Frenchy, but I decided it made the cut.

    December 2, 2006