Oeuvre

I found this fine word this morning in the New York Times story about William Styron entitled Styron Visible: Naming the Evils that Humans Do, by Michiko Kitutani.

Oeuvre (Å-vruh) [French uvre from Old French uevre, work, from Latin opera, plural of opus, work]

n.

1. A work of art.
2. the works of a writer, painter, composer or the like, taken as a whole.
3. any one of the works of a writer, painter, composer or the like.

Usage: Although Mr. Styron's oeuvre seems somewhat slender in retrospect, each of his major novels built upon its predecessor's achievements, working variations on earlier ideas, while amplifying them throughout the echo chamber of history.

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