Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A work consisting of four or more painted or carved panels that are hinged together.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A combination of panels or frames, more than three in number, for receiving paintings on one or both sides of every leaf. Compare diptych and triptych. Maskell, Russian Art, S. K. M. Handbook.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun art a work consisting of multiple painted or carved panels joined together, often with hinges

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Late Latin polyptycha, registers, account books, from Greek poluptukha, from neuter pl. of poluptukhos, having many folds : polu-, poly- + ptukhē, fold; see diptych.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek πολύπτυχος ("with many folds"), from πολύς ("many") + πτυχή ("a fold").

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Examples

  • Originally from the Scuola del Cristo at the Giudecca, the polyptych is composed of five panels, the central one of which is of St James the Greater with St John the Evangelist and St Filippo Benizzi one of the saints of the Order of Servites on the left, and St. Michael the Archangel and St. Louis of Toulouse on the right.

    July 25, James bar-Zebedee bls 2008

  • Originally from the Scuola del Cristo at the Giudecca, the polyptych is composed of five panels, the central one of which is of St James the Greater with St John the Evangelist and St Filippo Benizzi one of the saints of the Order of Servites on the left, and St. Michael the Archangel and St. Louis of Toulouse on the right.

    Archive 2008-07-01 bls 2008

  • Bentsen went into the encounter with Quayle armed with a devastating rhetorical polyptych: Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy.

    No Excuses Robert Shrum 2007

  • Bentsen went into the encounter with Quayle armed with a devastating rhetorical polyptych: Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy.

    No Excuses Robert Shrum 2007

  • Bentsen went into the encounter with Quayle armed with a devastating rhetorical polyptych: Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy.

    No Excuses Robert Shrum 2007

  • The city merits at least half a day -- a morning, to be sure of finding open the National Gallery of Umbria, just restored and rehung, with its magnificent Piero della Francesca polyptych, also just restored.

    Green-Hearted Italy 1995

  • A central panel with two wings is a triptych; an altarpiece with one central panel and several side panels or wings is a polyptych.

    A Handbook of Symbols in Christian Art Gertrude Grace Sill 1975

  • A central panel with two wings is a triptych; an altarpiece with one central panel and several side panels or wings is a polyptych.

    A Handbook of Symbols in Christian Art Gertrude Grace Sill 1975

  • Bouts, nor to halt a while at Ghent to admire the polyptych of the

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery 1840-1916 1913

  • Between the two tablets others were sometimes inserted and the diptych would then be called a triptych, polyptych, etc.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 5: Diocese-Fathers of Mercy 1840-1916 1913

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