vignette

/vɪnˈjɛt/

/vɪˈnjɛt/

Other forms: vignettes

A vignette is a brief but powerful scene. A good vignette leaves you wanting more.

Over the centuries a vignette has taken on different forms. Originally it was one of those small sketches you find in the front of old books, often with decorative bands of ivy around its edges (the word comes from the French vigne for vineyard). When cinema came along, a vignette became a quick portrait in film of a character. Some films, like Robert Altman's Short Cuts, are essentially just a compilation of individual vignettes.

Definitions of vignette

1. noun

   a brief literary description
   synonyms: sketch

   type of:

   description

   the act of describing something
2. noun

   a short evocative scene, as in a film or play
   type of:

   scene, shot

   a consecutive series of pictures that constitutes a unit of action in a film

   scene

   a subdivision of an act of a play
3. noun

   a small illustrative sketch (as sometimes placed at the beginning of chapters in books)
   type of:

   sketch, study

   preliminary drawing for later elaboration
4. noun

   a photograph whose edges shade off gradually
   type of:

   exposure, photo, photograph, pic, picture

   a representation of a person or scene in the form of a print or transparent slide; recorded by a camera on light-sensitive material