physiognomy

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He aimed to capture the temperament and character of his sitters as revealed by their physiognomy.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 24, 2026

“Although Hall never resorts to a cliched impersonation, his suggestion of Nixon’s physiognomy is frequently uncanny, especially in profile.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 13, 2022

But a wondrous portrait of one Simon George, a little-known nobleman from Cornwall, displays Holbein’s incredible ability to forge an individual likeness through both physiognomy and symbols.

From New York Times • Feb. 10, 2022

At the same exhibition, Degas showed four sketches of young men being tried for murder, which he had drawn from life; those, too, are informed by the day’s prevailing belief that physiognomy contained destiny.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 20, 2018

But I liked his physiognomy even less than before: it struck me as being at the same time unsettled and inanimate.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë