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In “Ozymandias,” Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous poem, a traveller tells of a colossal statue’s “shattered visage” lying half sunk in desert sands, going on to describe its “frown / And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command…” Now, Shelley could have simply chosen face over the more highfalutin synonym visage, but not only would face shatter the sonnet’s iambic pentameter, but a formal-sounding word is sometimes preferable to a basic one for all kinds of reasons, including sound, tone, or simply the cut of its jib. Physiognomy, for instance, refers to facial features thought to reveal qualities of temperament or character, as when Emily Brontë writes in Wuthering Heights, “I thought I could detect in his physiognomy a mind owning better qualities than his father ever possessed.” Countenance, meanwhile, is often used to refer to the face as an indication of mood or emotion, as in Bram Stoker’s Dracula: “Mina struggled hard to keep her brave countenance.” As all of these quotes attest, when it comes to wordsmithery, sometimes you’ve just got to vamp.
Examples of visage in a Sentence
Sarah Seltzer, Rolling Stone, 5 Aug. 2024
Jim Irsay, long-time owner of the Colts, who drafted Freeney in 2002, presented Freeney and unveiled Ben Hammond’s bronze bust, with its a calm, confident visage.
—Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 3 Aug. 2024
Gaga’s face was concealed and only her legs were visible until the accompanying dancers pulled back the pom-poms to reveal her visage.
—Kevin Dolak, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 July 2024
With dancers in black, Gaga’s face was concealed and only her legs were visible until the accompanying dancers pulled back the pom-poms to reveal her visage.
—Kevin Dolak, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for visage 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'visage.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near visage
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“Visage.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/visage. Accessed 19 Aug. 2024.
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visage
noun
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