- exposition
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2 Exposition, exposure, exposé are comparable when they mean a setting forth or laying open of a thing or things hitherto not known or fully understood.Exposition (see also EXHIBITION) often implies a display of something (as wares, manufactures, or a collection of rarities or antiquities); more often it implies a setting forth of some-thing which is necessary for the elucidation or explanation of something else such as a theory, a dogma, or the law{
you know the law, your exposition hath been most sound— Shak.
}or the events or situations preceding a story or play{the first quarter of the first act is devoted to the exposition
}In a more general sense, especially in academic use, exposition applies to the type of writing which has explanation for its end or aim and is thereby distinguished from other types in which the aim is to describe, to narrate, or to prove a contention.Exposure is now preferred to exposition as a term implying a laying bare or open especially to detrimental or injurious influences or to reprobation, contempt, or severe censure{fabrics faded by exposure to the sun
}{exposure to a contagious disease
}{the exposure of a candidate's unsavory past
}{the exposure of a person's motives
}Exposure is the term for the time during which the sensitive surface of a photographic film is laid open to the influence of light{an exposure of two seconds
}Exposé is often used in place of exposure for a revealing and especially a formal or deliberate revealing of something that is discreditable to a person or group{an exposé of an allegedly charitable association
}{an exposé of the judge's graft
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
