1. art movement concentrating on expressing emotion: an artistic movement that flourished in Germany between 1905 and 1925 whose adherents sought to represent feelings and moods rather than objective reality, often distorting color and form. The term is also used more loosely to apply to the work of Matisse and the Fauves.
2. theater literature literary movement presenting stylized reality: a literary movement of the early 20th century, especially in the theater, that represented external reality in a highly stylized and subjective manner, attempting to convey a psychological or spiritual reality rather than a record of actual events. The expressionists include the playwrights August Strindberg, Georg Wedekind, and Eugene O'Neill.
