Wordul · all words

noun · 2 syllables · /'ʒɒn.rə/

GENRE

What does "GENRE" mean?

A category of artistic work marked by a shared style, form, or subject.

Meanings

  1. A class or type of literature, film, music, or art defined by conventions of style or content. Horror is the genre she writes in, but she keeps breaking its rules.
  2. In painting, scenes of ordinary domestic or everyday life ('genre painting'). The Dutch masters elevated the humble kitchen into genre painting. technical

Did you know?

  • 'Genre', 'gender', 'genus', and 'general' are all the same Latin word in disguise - 'genus', meaning kind or category - branched into separate English meanings.

Word origin

Borrowed unchanged from French 'genre' (kind, sort), from Latin 'genus' (birth, kind, class) - the same root behind 'gender' and 'genus'.

Remember it

GENRE keeps its French face: say 'ZHON-ruh', and remember the silent kinship with GENUS, its Latin parent.

A little poem

We sort the songs into their tidy bins-
then someone plays a chord that fits no shelf
and a new genre is quietly born.

tercet

Wordplay

  • My band can't agree on our genre. We finally settled on 'experimental', which means we don't know either.

What it teaches

Categories are useful maps, not borders; the best work always smuggles something across the line.

Quick facts

What does GENRE mean?

A category of artistic work marked by a shared style, form, or subject.

Is GENRE a valid word?

Yes — GENRE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.

How many letters is GENRE?

GENRE has 5 letters and 2 syllables.

Where does GENRE come from?

Borrowed unchanged from French 'genre' (kind, sort), from Latin 'genus' (birth, kind, class) - the same root behind 'gender' and 'genus'.

What can GENRE teach us?

Categories are useful maps, not borders; the best work always smuggles something across the line.

How players do

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