: painting that depicts scenes or events from everyday life usually realistically
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Genre, as you might guess from the way it sounds, comes straight from French, a language based on Latin. It's closely related to genus, a word you may have encountered in biology class. Both words contain the gen- root because they indicate that everything in a particular category (a genre or a genus) belongs to the same "family" and thus has the same origins. So the main genres of classical music would include symphonies, sonatas, and opera, and the major genres of literature would include novels, short stories, poetry, and drama. But within the category of novels, we could also say that detective novels, sci-fi novels, romance novels, and young-adult novels are separate genres.
In genre fiction there is an implied contract between writer and reader that justice of a kind will be exacted; "good" may not always triumph over "evil," but the distinction between the two must be honored. Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books, 14 Aug. 2003One of the first marketers outside of hip-hop to recognize the power of the genre … . he first sent models sashaying down the runway in 1991 in hip-hop chic, with sneakers and chunky gold chains … Johnnie L. Roberts, Newsweek, 2 Sept. 2002Even the local Catholic archdiocesan weekly, hardly an exciting genre, offers a more provocative sampling of opinion on its editorial page. Walker Percy, "New Orleans Mon Amour,"1968, in Signposts in a Strange Land, 1991 This book is a classic of the mystery genre. the novel's hero is of a different genre than the traditional kind
Recent Examples on the WebTrue to its more traditional form after a more tangential third season, Atlanta‘s in its fully tone-shifting, genre-bending, reality-twisting, fever-dreamlike form this season. Rivea Ruff, Essence, 16 Sep. 2022 Hulu has so many shows to choose from that span nearly every genre. Toby Grey, BGR, 16 Sep. 2022 As often happens when creating music in the digital realm, theoretical genre barriers gradually fell away. Beverly Bryan, SPIN, 16 Sep. 2022 My new appreciation for À bout de souffle came with teaching it alongside Godard’s debut short Charlotte et son Jules (Charlotte and Her Boyfriend, 1958) — the original story of man–woman magnetism minus the Hollywood genre trappings. Armond White, National Review, 16 Sep. 2022 The full Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts, in addition to the full genre rankings, can be found on Billboard.com. Xander Zellner, Billboard, 15 Sep. 2022 By the time the group had started releasing music under the moniker Bomba Estéreo, alternative Latin music was dominated by the thriving rock en Español genre. Thania Garcia, Variety, 15 Sep. 2022 Equally inspired by the New Hollywood genre films of the 1970s and the bootstraps indie cinema of the 1990s, Oldenburg has carved out a niche unlike any of the major international festivals. Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Sep. 2022 But particularly with this genre, because of my touchstones with it, the element of silliness to Poirot is essential to what makes that character tick. Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
French, from Middle French, kind, gender — more at gender