cubism

noun

cub·​ism ˈkyü-ˌbi-zəm 

often capitalized

: a style of art that stresses abstract structure at the expense of other pictorial elements especially by displaying several aspects of the same object simultaneously and by fragmenting the form of depicted objects

cubist

ˈkyü-bist 

noun or adjective often capitalized

cubistic

kyü-ˈbi-stik 

adjective

Examples of cubism in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Notable modernists include Virginia Woolf (stream-of-consciousness novels), Pablo Picasso (cubism), Arnold Schoenberg (twelve-tone technique), and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (International Style architecture). —Hazlitt, 10 Apr. 2024

America’s great indigenous art had evolved from the exuberant transgressions of the 1920s to the danceable rhythms of the swing era to the prickly cubism of bebop. —James Kaplan, The Atlantic, 6 Mar. 2024

Sherman sees the disjunctions in her new work’s faces almost as an exercise in cubism. —Nancy Princenthal, New York Times, 24 Jan. 2024

And no, in 1906, Picasso hadn’t yet invented (with Georges Braque) the revolutionary pictorial language known as cubism. —Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 10 Jan. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1911, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

cubism

noun

cub·​ism ˈkyü-ˌbiz-əm 

: a style of art in which natural forms are broken up into geometric shapes (as squares, triangles, or circles)

cubist

-bist 

adjective or noun