as in features
formal
the appearance of a person's face; a person's facial features
He and his son have the same distinctive physiognomy.
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Recent Examples of physiognomy
Differences between Genovese and Costello come down to their marriages (the former to Kathrine Narducci’s Anna, the latter to Debra Messing’s Bobbie) and the physiognomy of make-up for the men’s superficial contrasts.
—
Armond White, National Review, 21 Mar. 2025
Guston’s first comic for The Junior Times, a sparse strip drawn at age 12, introduced Little Snowball, a Black youth bearing exaggerated racial physiognomy and dialect.
—Walker Mimms, New York Times, 4 June 2024
Her husband would catch her staring clinically at his physiognomy.
—Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 9 Jan. 2024
And, of course, there was the perennial punch line of physiognomy: sight gags, sketches, and songs that depicted Jewish bodies as misshapen and absurd.
—Jody Rosen, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2023
See All Example Sentences for physiognomy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for physiognomy
Noun
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Since 2022, numerous campuses have added new safety features – such as installing more cameras on campus and hiring additional police officers – while also working to strengthen their relationships with federal and local law enforcement, according to Inside Higher Ed.—
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DeZao says one of AI’s most helpful features is its ability to receive instructions and do its work while the human employee can remain focused on the task at hand.—
Noun
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Earlier that evening, Garden Grove police had been contacted by the Santa Ana Police Department, which was investigating a possible missing-person case after the woman failed to report to work, police said.—
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The occasional person on a walk or shopper at one of the barely dozen stores still open, but the sound inside the mall is mostly just silence.—
Noun
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Carter continued to act into the early 2020s with appearances in Stumptown, Fake Friends and the TV series Dave.—
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In fact, his seven playoff victories are the most ever for a QB without even a Super Bowl appearance.—
Cite this Entry
“Physiognomy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/physiognomy. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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