expression

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noun

1. The act or an instance of expressing in words: articulation, statement, utterance, verbalization, vocalization, voice. See words.
2. Vivid, effective, or persuasive communication in speech or artistic performance: articulacy, articulateness, eloquence, eloquentness, expressiveness, expressivity, facundity. See words.
3. The act or process of describing in lifelike imagery: delineation, depiction, description, portrayal, representation. See show/hide.
4. Something that takes the place of words in communicating a thought or feeling: gesture, indication, sign, token. See show/hide.
5. A sound or combination of sounds that symbolizes and communicates a meaning: locution, term, word. See words.
6. A word or group of words forming a unit and conveying meaning: locution, phrase. See words.
7. A disposition of the facial features that conveys meaning, feeling, or mood: aspect, cast, countenance, face, look, visage. See express.

The idea that music can express emotion has many times been reiterated in the history of writing about music. In some areas, for example the Baroque, it was believed that certain types of phrase carry specific emotional connotations (i.e. a descending minor-key phrase connotes despair). Some writers have held that music could express specific emotions while others suggest it merely imitates them.

More commonly, ‘expression’ is applied to elements in musical performance that depend on personal response and vary between different interpretations, i.e. such nuances as can arise from articulation, tempo and dynamics. The term ‘expression marks’ is applied particularly to indications of dynamics, like pp (pianissimo, very quiet), f (forte, loud) or cresc (crescendo, growing louder); terms like cantabile (in a singing style) or morendo (dying away) are also expression marks.

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An utterance expresses a thought; a cry expresses grief or pain; a poem may express nostalgia or energy. The simplest view would be that any action that makes public or communicates a state of mind thereby expresses it. However, a mere signal seems not to express what it signals, and a mere statement (‘I feel nostalgic about the sixties’) does not express nostalgia in the way that a poem does. It seems that expression requires some concept of the action being an adequate or successful rendering of what is expressed. The words or other actions should somehow fit the states they express. The problem is to understand this conception of fit.

In aesthetic theory, a popular view is that a work of art derives its effect by expressing the feelings of its creator. The view that this is their value was forcibly presented by Croce and Collingwood and probably strikes many artists as correct. It raises the problem of the existence, and nature, of these feelings before they take shape in words, painting, or whatever other medium is chosen. In The Principles of Art (1938), Collingwood insisted that true artistic activity takes place ‘in the head’, before anything is embodied in the actual medium of the artist. The creation of an artwork is then just a matter of craft, following on the real creative moment. This theory is a manifestation of Romanticism, in that the artist is now singled out as the person of extraordinary feeling or sensibility, rather than the person of particular skills. The view can be seen as a vindication of expressionism in art, as seen in the use of exaggeration and distortion for emotional effect. But it requires undue confidence in the idea of a determinate (and interesting) inner life with its own properties, existing independently of any actual externalization. If expression is to retain a central place in aesthetic theory, a closer connection between what is expressed and the nature of the work expressing it is needed. Thus a musical movement expresses feeling not just because someone with a feeling hit upon it as a good movement to write, but because the feeling is an appropriate or fitting response to the work. The actual feelings of the artist are then no longer central, and the success of the work does not depend upon its relationship to any such previous episode as the artist feeling sad or happy. The problem for aesthetics remains that of understanding why particular sounds may be sad or funny, or why particular lines or colours in a painting can be energetic or graceful.

IN BRIEF: A way of speaking, singing, or playing something that gives it real meaning or feeling. Also: a word or phrase.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn. — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950).

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sign description: Both X hands move up and down the side of the face.

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Quotes:

"The most important thing you wear is the expression on your face" - Source Unknown

"It is only by expressing all that is inside that purer and purer streams come." - Brenda Ueland

"I have never accepted what many people have kindly said-namely that I inspired the nation. Their will was resolute and remorseless, and as it proved, unconquerable. It fell to me to express it." - Winston Churchill

"No comment is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." - Winston Churchill

1. The realization of a single trait or group of traits by direct genetic manipulation or by hybridization techniques.
   
2. The artful and creative demonstration of lateral thinking by one such as a flavorist.
   
3. The production of an essential oil by squeezing an oil-rich food product. The extraction, usually by crushing of a food, usually citrus, to produce an essential or fixed oil.
   
4. The crushing of fruits to produce a fruit juice product. See Creativity, Protein Expression.
   
5. The production of proteins by DNA encoding. See DNA, Protein, RNA, Fixed Oils, Essential Oil, Citrus, Peel.
   

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1. the act or process of allowing information to become manifest. See gene expression, expression vector, expression system.
2. (in mathematics) a variable function or some combination of constants, variables, and/or functions.
3. the act or process of forcing or squeezing fluid from or out of something.

Previous:	expressed sequence tag, express, exposure
Next:	expression profile, expression system, expression vector

1. the aspect or appearance of the face as determined by the physical or emotional state.
2. the act of squeezing out or evacuating by pressure.
3. the manifestation of a heritable trait in an individual carrying the gene or genes which determine it.

• e. library — a number of different DNA molecules cloned into a single expression vector.
• e. vector — a cloning vector that carries a gene into the host cell and promotes its expression.

For a list of words related to expression, see:

• Aspects and Components of Appearance - expression: arrangement of facial features, body posture, and use of vocal intonation to manifest a particular feeling
• Quantities, Relationships, and Operations - expression: symbol or combination of symbols representing a value or relationship
• Linguistics and Writing Systems - expression: unit of speech composed of several elements
• Rhetoric and Figures of Speech - expression: particular word or phrase used to represent something verbally

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - udtryk, ytring

idioms:

• expression of approval    bifaldsytring

Nederlands (Dutch)
uitdrukking, expressie, gezichtsuitdrukking, het uitpersen, de uitgeperste stof

Français (French)
n. - expression, témoignage, manifestation, tournure (de phrase), locution, (Math) expression

idioms:

• expression of approval    témoignage d'approbation, témoignage d'adhésion

Deutsch (German)
n. - Ausdruck

idioms:

• expression of approval    Beifallsäußerung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - έκφραση, διατύπωση, τρόπος έκφρασης, δήλωση, εκδήλωση, φράση, έκφραση, έκφραση (προσώπου), ύφος

idioms:

• expression of approval    έκφραση επιδοκιμασίας

Italiano (Italian)
espressione

Português (Portuguese)
n. - expressão (f), gesto (m)

Русский (Russian)
выражение, выразительность, изображение, символ

Español (Spanish)
n. - señal, aspecto, expresión, locución, frase hecha, manifestación, representación

idioms:

• expression of approval    muestra de adhesión

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - uttryck, yttrande

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
表达, 措辞, 语法

idioms:

• expression of approval    表示赞许

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 表達, 措辭, 語法

idioms:

• expression of approval    表示讚許

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 표현, 표정, 억양, 짜내기

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 表現, 表情, 調子, 言い回し, 表現力, 式

idioms:

• expression of approval    許可の印

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) عبارة جهريه, تعبير‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮ביטוי, הבעה, מבע, מלה, מראה, הטעמה‬

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Some good "expression" pages on the web: