fron·tis·piece

(frŭn′tĭ-spēs′)

a. An illustration that faces or immediately precedes the title page of a book, book section, or magazine.

b. Archaic A title page.

2. Architecture

a. A façade, especially an ornamental façade.

b. A small ornamental pediment, as on top of a door or window.

[Alteration (influenced by piece) of French frontispice, from Late Latin frontispicium, façade of a building : Latin frontis, genitive of frōns, forehead, front + Latin specere, to look at; see spek- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

frontispiece

(ˈfrʌntɪsˌpiːs)

1. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) an illustration facing the title page of a book

2. (Architecture) the principal façade of a building; front

3. (Architecture) a pediment, esp an ornamented one, over a door, window, etc

[C16 frontispice, from French, from Late Latin frontispicium façade, inspection of the forehead, from Latin frōns forehead + specere to look at; influenced by piece]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

fron•tis•piece

(ˈfrʌn tɪsˌpis, ˈfrɒn-)

n.

1. an illustrated leaf preceding the title page of a book.

2. a facade of a building, or a part of a facade, often highlighted by ornamentation.

[1590–1600; alter. (conformed to piece) of earlier frontispice < French < Late Latin frontispicium façade]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	frontispiece - an ornamental facade facade, frontage, frontal - the face or front of a building
	2.	frontispiece - front illustration facing the title page of a book front - the side that is seen or that goes first

frontispiece

noun

Architecture. The forward outer surface of a building:

façade, face, front, frontage, frontal.

Translations

صورَة في صَدر كِتاب مواجِهَة للعنوان

titulní obrázek/rytina

titelbillede

Titelbild

frontispice

címkép

mynd fremst í bók

frontespizio

frontispisasiliustracija prieš titulinį lapą

tittelbilde

фронтиспис

kitabın başındaki süslü resimli sayfa

卷首插画

frontispiece

[ˈfrʌntɪspiːs] N [of book] → frontispicio m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

frontispiece

[ˈfrʌntɪspiːs] n → frontispice mfront line n

(in war) → première ligne f
on the front line → en première ligne

to be in the front line (fig) → être en première lignefront-line [ˌfrʌntˈlaɪn] adj

[troops, news] → du front; [countries, areas] → limitrophe (d'un pays en guerre)

[worker, service] → de première lignefront-loading washing machine n → lave-linge m à chargement frontalfront-page [ˌfrʌntˈpeɪdʒ] adj [article] → qui fait la unefront page n [newspaper] → première page f
to make the front page → faire la une, faire la première pagefront-page news n
to be front-page news → faire la une, faire la première pagefront room n (British) (= living room) → salon mfront runner n → favori(te) m/f
to be a front runner for sth → être l'un des favoris pour qch(favorites)
He is a front runner for the party leadership → C'est l'un des favoris pour la présidence du parti.front-wheel drive

n (= car, system) → traction f avant

modif [car] → traction avant

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

frontispiece

n → zweite Titelseite, Frontispiz nt (obs)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

frontispiece

[ˈfrʌntɪsˌpiːs] n → frontespizio

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

frontispiece

(ˈfrantispiːs) noun

a picture at the very beginning of a book.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

I took `Napoleon Announcing the Divorce to Josephine' for my frontispiece. On the white pages I grouped Sunday-School cards and advertising cards which I had brought from my `old country.' Fuchs got out the old candle-moulds and made tallow candles.

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'In the first place buy yourself an A B C book of the kind which has a cock on the frontispiece; in the second, turn your cart and your two oxen into money, and get yourself some clothes, and whatsoever else pertains to medicine; thirdly, have a sign painted for yourself with the words: "I am Doctor Knowall," and have that nailed up above your house-door.' The peasant did everything that he had been told to do.

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His frontispiece, boats attacking Sperm Whales, though no doubt calculated to excite the civil scepticism of some parlor men, is admirably correct and life-like in its general effect.

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The frontispiece was a photograph of Captain Jim himself, standing at the door of the lighthouse, looking across the gulf.

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She came at once upon a handsomely engraved and colored frontispiece -- a hu- man figure, stark naked.

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The judge, by the way, was the King; and as he wore his crown over the wig, (look at the frontispiece if you want to see how he did it,) he did not look at all comfortable, and it was certainly not becoming.

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Little Pearl, who was as greatly pleased with the gleaming armour as she had been with the glittering frontispiece of the house, spent some time looking into the polished mirror of the breastplate.

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Again, it is certain that the archdeacon had been seized with a singular passion for the symbolical door of Notre- Dame, that page of a conjuring book written in stone, by Bishop Guillaume de Paris, who has, no doubt, been damned for having affixed so infernal a frontispiece to the sacred poem chanted by the rest of the edifice.

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While in this moody state, he was surprised, on the 16th of January, by the sudden appearance of M'Kenzie, wayworn and weather-beaten by a long wintry journey from his post on the Shahaptan, and with a face the very frontispiece for a volume of misfortune.

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Miss Morland has been talking of nothing more dreadful than a new publication which is shortly to come out, in three duodecimo volumes, two hundred and seventy-six pages in each, with a frontispiece to the first, of two tombstones and a lantern -- do you understand?

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It was a thin book bound in faded morocco, with a copperplate engraving as a frontispiece; the pages were musty with age and stained with mould.

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Nobody ever put my father's portrait in the frontispiece of a magazine, or described his personal appearance and manners with anxious elaboration, in the large type of a great newspaper--I enjoyed both those honors.

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