texture

[teks-cher] /ˈtɛks tʃər/

noun

the visual and especially tactile quality of a surface:

rough texture.

the characteristic structure of the interwoven or intertwined threads, strands, or the like, that make up a textile fabric:

coarse texture.

the characteristic physical structure given to a material, an object, etc., by the size, shape, arrangement, and proportions of its parts:

soil of a sandy texture; a cake with a heavy texture.

an essential or characteristic quality; essence.

Fine Arts.

the characteristic visual and tactile quality of the surface of a work of art resulting from the way in which the materials are used.
the imitation of the tactile quality of represented objects.

the quality given, as to a musical or literary work, by the combination or interrelation of parts or elements.

a rough or grainy surface quality.

anything produced by weaving; woven fabric.

verb (used with object), textured, texturing.

to give texture or a particular texture to.

10.

to make by or as if by weaving.

Origin

1400-50; late Middle English < Latin textūra web, equivalent to text(us) (past participle of texere to weave) + -ūra -ure

Related forms

textural, adjective

texturally, adverb

textureless, adjective

nontextural, adjective

nontexturally, adverb

retexture, verb (used with object), retextured, retexturing.

semitextural, adjective

semitexturally, adverb

untextural, adjective

Examples from the web for texture

By detecting the change in this speckle, it is possible to chart the texture of the surface.
These are solid polycarbonate sheets with a texture on one surface.
One is to texture the metal surface and then put a water-repelling chemical coating on it.
The other approach is to leave the metal surface untouched and texture the coating itself.
For the gastronome, the grinder offered a new degree of fineness and consistency of texture.
It is important to get the feel of a book-the texture of its paper, the quality of its printing, the nature of its binding.
Still, even the clearest images had an uncanny texture and quality.
Tear them out of that texture-read about their brats, look at pictures of their vacation-and they mean nothing.
Others have compared the lionfish's texture to that of grouper and hogfish.
Instead, her aim is to recreate the texture of the day-to-day ebb and flow of events as if they were unfolding before her eyes.

British Dictionary definitions for texture

texture

/ˈtɛkstʃə/

noun

the surface of a material, esp as perceived by the sense of touch: a wall with a rough texture

the structure, appearance, and feel of a woven fabric

the general structure and disposition of the constituent parts of something: the texture of a cake

the distinctive character or quality of something: the texture of life in America

the nature of a surface other than smooth: woollen cloth has plenty of texture

(art) the representation of the nature of a surface: the painter caught the grainy texture of the sand

music considered as the interrelationship between the horizontally presented aspects of melody and rhythm and the vertically represented aspect of harmony: a contrapuntal texture
the nature and quality of the instrumentation of a passage, piece, etc

verb

(transitive) to give a distinctive usually rough or grainy texture to

Derived Forms

textural, adjective
texturally, adverb
textureless, adjective

Word Origin

C15: from Latin textūra web, from texere to weave

Word Origin and History for texture

early 15c., "network, structure," from Middle French texture, from Latin textura "web, texture, structure," from stem of texere "to weave," from PIE root *tek- "to weave, to fabricate, to make; make wicker or wattle framework" (cf. Sanskrit taksati "he fashions, constructs," taksan "carpenter;" Avestan taša "ax, hatchet," thwaxš- "be busy;" Old Persian taxš- "be active;" Greek tekton "carpenter," tekhne "art;" Old Church Slavonic tesla "ax, hatchet;" Lithuanian tasau "to carve;" Old Irish tal "cooper's ax;" Old High German dahs, German Dachs "badger," literally "builder;" Hittite taksh- "to join, unite, build"). Meaning "structural character" is recorded from 1650s.

texture in Medicine

texture tex·ture (těks'chər)
n.
The composition or structure of a tissue or organ.

tex'tured adj.

texture in Science

texture

(těks'chər)
The general physical appearance of a rock, especially with respect to the size, shape, size variability, and geometric arrangement of its mineral crystals (for igneous and metamorphic rocks) and of its constituent elements (for sedimentary rocks). A sandstone that forms as part of an eolian (wind-blown) deposit, for example, has a texture that reflects its small, rounded sand grains of uniform size, while a sandstone that formed as part of a fluvial deposit has a texture reflecting the presence of grains of varying sizes, with some more rounded than others.

texture in Technology

graphics
A measure of the variation of the intensity of a surface, quantifying properties such as smoothness, coarseness and regularity. It's often used as a region descriptor in image analysis and computer vision.
The three principal approaches used to describe texture are statistical, structural and spectral. Statistical techniques characterise texture by the statistical properties of the grey levels of the points comprising a surface. Typically, these properties are computed from the grey level histogram or grey level cooccurrence matrix of the surface.
Structural techniques characterise texture as being composed of simple primitives called "texels" (texture elements), that are regularly arranged on a surface according to some rules. These rules are formally defined by grammars of various types.
Spectral techiques are based on properties of the Fourier spectrum and describe global periodicity of the grey levels of a surface by identifying high energy peaks in the spectrum.
(1995-05-11)