How to Use physiognomy in a Sentence

physiognomy

noun
  • He and his son have the same distinctive physiognomy.
  • The physiognomies of Sergius of Radonezh and Joseph Stalin upon its wings!
    — Vladimir Sorokin, Harper's Magazine, 13 July 2022
  • The Ichthyosaurus shares some traits with a dolphin, as both creatures have the same physiognomy and similar birthing techniques.
    — Dana Givens, Robb Report, 5 Dec. 2022
  • But the biases of these systems suggest that physiognomy has taken a new, less explicit form.
    — Cal Revely-Calder, New Yorker, 29 June 2026
  • Hence the 19th century was the golden age of a pseudoscience known as physiognomy.
    — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, 13 Aug. 2017
  • Her husband would catch her staring clinically at his physiognomy.
    — Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 9 Jan. 2024
  • Also, there had been slightly hazy security-cam shots of him fleeing the subway attack, and the height and physiognomy and hair all seemed to match.
    — Han Ong, The New Yorker, 9 Jan. 2023
  • That Quest Pro headset has five cameras that scan a user’s physiognomy to make their avatar show their expressions in real time.
    — Steven Levy, WIRED, 14 Oct. 2022
  • Meanwhile, a younger generation has brought new shades of irony to riffs on Jewish identity and physiognomy.
    — Jody Rosen, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2023
  • Some plastic surgeons have been educating themselves in physiognomy to advise their clients.
    — The Economist, 24 Feb. 2018
  • Eliza, who does not seem to belong there at all, is also hot — hotter than Petey’s former best friend, for even in cartoons, physiognomy is destiny.
    — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2023
  • Though diminutive, miniatures condense and unify a host of references to physiognomy, class, attire and setting.
    — Colin T. Eisler, WSJ, 16 July 2021
  • Based on the images that have been released, the new car’s physiognomy is very similar to that of the outgoing version, but there are some subtle differences.
    — Mike Duff, Car and Driver, 12 May 2022
  • Lavater took the approaches of physiognomy and blended them with the latest scientific knowledge.
    — Kate Crawford, The Atlantic, 27 Apr. 2021
  • Bush now commands a style, generic but efficient, of thick, summary brushwork that aims to capture expression as well as physiognomy.
    — Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2017
  • Noah's daughters-in-law, unnamed in the Bible, are each assigned a different race to explain the varying physiognomy of the world's inhabitants.
    — The Washington Post, AL.com, 24 May 2017
  • But as the distortions start to affect the relations between the characters and their own physiognomy, things grow increasingly unreal.
    — George Pendle, Esquire, 21 Feb. 2018
  • At one point, the conversation turned to physiognomy, the pseudoscientific judgment of a person’s character based on their facial features.
    — New York Times, 18 Mar. 2021
  • Years of chronic asthma and a fragile physiognomy left him relatively limited in his physical activity.
    — Oliver Munday, The Atlantic, 1 Nov. 2020
  • The notebook contains thoughts on perspective that Da Vinci jotted down next to architectural studies and caricatures for physiognomy studies.
    — Nicole Martinelli, WIRED, 3 Apr. 2006
  • And yet the brilliant meditations—on whether color exists in the world or in the eye, on physiognomy, on borders and borderlessness, and on suffering—seem in some instances comically obsolete and in others utterly germane.
    — Claire Messud, Harper's Magazine, 17 Aug. 2021
  • Her images are a critique of pseudo-scientific studies in 19th- and early 20th-centuries that categorized racial groups according to their physiognomy as a way to assert the superiority of whites.
    — Steven Litt, cleveland.com, 14 July 2019
  • As genetics, psychology, and neuroscience ascended, the twentieth century sent physiognomy back into disrepute, and today, from Lavater to Lombroso, its promoters may seem a racist shade of quaint.
    — Cal Revely-Calder, New Yorker, 29 June 2026
  • Our physiognomy, including individual asymmetries, our expressions (macro and micro), the qualities of our complexion, all encode valuable information about age, our mental and physical health, our lived experience and personality.
    — Valerie Monroe, Allure, 15 Jan. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'physiognomy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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