expressionism.

An artistic movement or approach emphasizing subjective experience or emotion through expressive, sometimes distorted forms.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• literary expressionism
• expressionism in painting

On the page

The painting’s distorted proportions were discussed in relation to expressionism.

Literary expressionism shaped the scene’s heightened representation of experience.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: artistic orientation, figurative interpretation, life writing, narrative knowledge. Disciplines: literary writing, literary analysis, advanced general English. Commonness: moderately common.