EXPOSITION

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does exposition mean? 

• EXPOSITION (noun)
  The noun EXPOSITION has 4 senses:

1. a systematic interpretation or explanation (usually written) of a specific topic

2. a collection of things (goods or works of art etc.) for public display

3. an account that sets forth the meaning or intent of a writing or discourse

4. (music) the section of a movement (especially in sonata form) where the major musical themes first occur

  Familiarity information: EXPOSITION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXPOSITION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A systematic interpretation or explanation (usually written) of a specific topic

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

exposition; expounding

Hypernyms ("exposition" is a kind of...):

interpretation (an explanation that results from interpreting something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "exposition"):

philosophizing (the exposition (often superficially) of a particular philosophy)

Derivation:

exposit (state)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A collection of things (goods or works of art etc.) for public display

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

exhibition; expo; exposition

Hypernyms ("exposition" is a kind of...):

accumulation; aggregation; assemblage; collection (several things grouped together or considered as a whole)

Domain category:

art; artistic creation; artistic production (the creation of beautiful or significant things)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "exposition"):

art exhibition (an exhibition of art objects (paintings or statues))

peepshow; raree-show (an exhibition of pictures or objects viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass)

fair (a competitive exhibition of farm products)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An account that sets forth the meaning or intent of a writing or discourse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

we would have understood the play better if there had been some initial exposition of the background

Hypernyms ("exposition" is a kind of...):

account; explanation (a statement that makes something comprehensible by describing the relevant structure or operation or circumstances etc.)

Derivation:

exposit (add details, as to an account or idea; clarify the meaning of and discourse in a learned way, usually in writing)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(music) the section of a movement (especially in sonata form) where the major musical themes first occur

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("exposition" is a kind of...):

section; subdivision (a self-contained part of a larger composition (written or musical))

Domain category:

music (an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner)

 Context examples 

Idealism had never attracted Martin, but the exposition it now received at the hands of Norton was a revelation.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

One smallest new fact obtained in the laboratory, one brick built into the temple of science, far outweighs any second-hand exposition which passes an idle hour, but can leave no useful result behind it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Kreis paused long enough in the midst of his exposition to tell him that in most of his "Shame of the Sun" he had been a chump.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Reading the works of men who had arrived, he noted every result achieved by them, and worked out the tricks by which they had been achieved—the tricks of narrative, of exposition, of style, the points of view, the contrasts, the epigrams; and of all these he made lists for study.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)