exposition

noun ex·po·si·tion \ ˌek-spə-ˈzi-shən \

Updated on: 14 Apr 2018

Definition of exposition

1 : a setting forth of the meaning or purpose (as of a writing)

2 a : discourse or an example of it designed to convey information or explain what is difficult to understand

b (1) : the first part of a musical composition in sonata form in which the thematic material of the movement is presented

(2) : the opening section of a fugue

3 : a public exhibition or show

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expositional

play \ˌek-spə-ˈzish-nəl, -ˈzi-shə-nᵊl\ adjective

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Examples of exposition in a Sentence

This is not an easy book, and the reader may find the layers of detail challenging. There are long expositions of the knotty tangles of monarchical lineage, and the necessary chronicle of historical events occasionally consumes the novel's narrative drive. —Lucy Lethbridge, Commonweal, 23 Oct. 2009
He is masterly in absorbing information and masterful in organizing it—skeptical of fashion, clear in exposition, fluent in communication, unremittingly scholarly. —Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, New York Times Book Review, 11 June 2000
Although they were invited to use an early X ray machine on display at the exposition, they turned down the offer, and they never found the bullet. —T. Burton Smith, American Heritage, September 1992
The subject requires some exposition.
a clear exposition of his ideas

Recent Examples of exposition from the Web

Everybody liked a little pick-me-up, especially after one of Merleau-Ponty’s strenuous and long expositions on phenomenology.

— Longreads, "When Sartre and Beauvoir Started a Magazine," 10 Apr. 2018
For centuries, portraiture—in America and elsewhere—has been devoted to the exposition of the lives of the rich, the famous, the royal, the historical, the heroic.

— alicia ault, Smithsonian, "Two Artists in Search of Missing History," 5 Apr. 2018
The exposition is just as bald, but once it’s done, Spielberg can focus on the endless dynamism of a world where anything is possible.

— tasha robinson, The Verge, "Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One improves immensely on the book," 30 Mar. 2018
The point of the sequence isn't Watts' rote, affectless exposition, though.

— peter rubin, WIRED, "Ready Player One Is a Virtually Empty Good Time," 29 Mar. 2018
Loden, then 31 and a mid-level manager at New York Telephone Co., was asked to attend the exposition after the company’s only female vice president couldn’t make it.

— theresa vargas, Washington Post, "She coined the term ‘glass ceiling.’ She fears it will outlive her.," 1 Mar. 2018
StartUp isn't all that effective as a binge-watch — its thrills are predictable, its dialogue bogged down in tech exposition, and its gratuitous violence increasingly hard to stomach — but the cast is an all-around asset.

— Cosmopolitan, "Your Bae Adam Brody Is Back on TV, Only Now He's R-Rated," 6 Sep. 2016
With New York about to become one of the states to allow legal marijuana, about 2,000 attendees came to a cannabis business exposition to network and to check out new products.

— gogo lidz, Newsweek, "Women in Weed: How Legal Marijuana Could Be the First Billion-Dollar Industry Not Dominated by Men," 20 Aug. 2015
Moreover, the Zee and Faith chapters feel somewhat perfunctory, with long stretches of exposition, so that years of change whoosh by on generalizations.

— amy gentry, chicagotribune.com, "Review: 'The Female Persuasion' by Meg Wolitzer," 26 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'exposition.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.