odalisque

noun

oda·​lisque ˈō-də-ˌlisk 

plural odalisques

1

: an enslaved woman

2

: a concubine in a harem

Examples of odalisque in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The pose recalls the odalisque, though the tone is godlike detachment, presiding over a catastrophic wreck. —Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 29 Sep. 2025

Mickalene Thomas gets a whole room for her paintings of Black odalisques, and Derrick Adams gets an entire wall of his male nudes. —Sarah Douglas, ARTnews.com, 16 Oct. 2024

In art history, the odalisque is a female figure in repose, her body splayed out for the viewer’s eye to devour. —Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 23 Apr. 2024

These women, usually sitting or lying, provide the base for each chaise longue’s form—turning the image of an odalisque into the furniture itself. —Camille Okhio, ELLE Decor, 30 Nov. 2022

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Nov. 19 through March 12 In a Joan Brown painting, a cat might sit pensively in the middle of a Kool-Aid-colored landscape and a woman with the body of a tiger might take the pose of an Ingres odalisque. —Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2022

Word History

Etymology

French, from Turkish odalık, from oda room

First Known Use

circa 1681, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for odalisque

• basilisk
• bisque
• brisk
• disc
• disk
• fisc
• fisk
• frisk
• risk
• whisk
• videodisc