physique

nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,780 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: physiques

Physique is the build and shape of a person's body. Broad, slight, muscular, wiry.

The word describes the frame rather than the fitness, though the two usually travel together. It belongs to sport, to bodybuilding and to description, so an athlete's physique and a slight physique are both standard. It came from French and kept the spelling, which is why it ends in que and is pronounced fizz-eek. It never takes a plural in ordinary use. Build is the plainer English word for exactly the same thing.

Definitions of physique

1nounphysiqueThe form and build of a person's body.C1
“He had the physique of a swimmer.”

Where it comes from

French
physique
English, today
physique

From French physique.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 24 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

physique in the wild

The Athletic Model Guild, or AMG, was a physique photography studio founded by Bob Mizer in December 1945.
Athletic Model Guild
Fitness and figure competition is a class of physique-exhibition events mainly for women but also men.
Fitness and figure competition
Scholar Thomas Waugh described physique magazines as the "richest documentation of gay culture of the period".
Physique magazine
Annales de chimie et de physique is a scientific journal founded in Paris, France, in 1789 under the title Annales de chimie.
Annales de chimie et de physique
In 1815, it became the Annales de chimie et de physique, and was published under that name for the next 100 years.
Annales de chimie et de physique

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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