- excessive use of some distinctive, often affected, manner or style in art, literature, speech, or behavior
- a peculiarity of manner in behavior, speech, etc. that has become a habit
- [M-] a 16th-cent. style in art characterized by distortion of realistic proportions, contorted figures, an avoidance of classical balance, etc.
noun
- The way you talk and gesture are examples of mannerisms.
- When you are constantly twirling your hair to an extreme extent, this is an example of a mannerism.
- When an artist has a distinctive style that he always tries to incorporate into his paintings, this is an example of a mannerism.
The definition of a mannerism is a habit, gesture or other speech or dress characteristic that someone does often.
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"mannerism." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/mannerism>.
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mannerism. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/mannerism
mannerism
Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"mannerism." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/mannerism>.
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mannerism. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/mannerism
mannerism
noun
- A distinctive behavioral trait, especially one that calls attention to itself; an idiosyncrasy. See Synonyms at affectation.
- Exaggerated or affected style in an art: films characterized by excessive artifice and mannerism.
- Mannerism An artistic style of the late 1500s characterized by distortion of elements such as scale and perspective.
Related Forms:
- man′ner·ist
noun
- man′ner·is′tic
adjective
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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MLA Style
"mannerism." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/mannerism>.
APA Style
mannerism. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/mannerism
Noun
(plural mannerisms)
- A group of verbal or other unconscious habitual behaviors peculiar to an individual.
- Exaggerated or effected style in art, speech, or other behavior.
Origin
manner +"Ž -ism
Noun
(plural mannerisms)
- (art, literature) In literature, an ostentatious and unnatural style of the second half of the sixteenth century. In the contemporary criticism, described as a negation of the classicist equilibrium, pre-Baroque, and deforming expressiveness.
- (art, literature) In fine art, a style that is inspired by previous models, aiming to reproduce subjects in an expressive language.
Origin
From Italian manierismo, from maniera, coined by L. Lanzi at the end of the XVIII century.
Noun
(uncountable)
- (art) A style of art developed at the end of the High Renaissance, characterized by the deliberate distortion and exaggeration of perspective and especially the elongation of figures.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
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MLA Style
"mannerism." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/mannerism>.
APA Style
mannerism. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/mannerism
Sentence Examples
- His quiet unassuming mannerism can be very seductive . It's easy to look at Libra and sense the passion he keeps in check just below the surface of his calm exterior.
- There is none of the mannerism of a long tradition, but a nobility pervades them which has no self-consciousness.
- For although there was at that time a recognized poetical style, already degenerating to mannerism, a developed prose style did not exist.
- This drama very early freed itself from the pseudo-classic mannerism which imposed on taste in Italy and France.
- When therefore he, after the lapse of years, resumed his pen, the mannerism which he had contracted while he was in the constant habit of elaborate composition was less perceptible than formerly, and his diction frequently had a colloquial ease which it had formerly wanted.
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WORDS NEAR mannerism IN THE DICTIONARY
- mannerism
- mannerisms
- mannerist
- manneristic