1. work that is supplementary to one’s main occupation or area of study
Usage: formal; academic
2. in art, a subordinate or accessory part of a composition
Usage: art terminology

Examples

• His poetry was merely a parergon to his career as a physician.
• The landscape painting included architectural parerga that enhanced the main scene.
• She considered her volunteer work a meaningful parergon to her legal practice.
• The decorative borders served as parerga to the manuscript’s central text.
• Writing book reviews became his favorite parergon during retirement.
• The artist’s parerga often revealed as much skill as his primary subjects.