A figurado is any cigar that is not straight-sided. The head, the foot, or both are shaped. Examples include the torpedo, the pyramid, the belicoso, the perfecto, the double corona with a pigtail cap, and other shaped cigars, which the trade calls “fancy tails.” Cuban factories treated some of these as standard sizes. After the revolution, fewer rollers in the U.S. market could make them, until companies such as Arturo Fuente brought figurados back to American shops with the Hemingway line in 1981.
Figurados are harder to bunch and harder to roll. The point of a torpedo concentrates the wrapper at the head, and a perfecto is closed at both ends. None of this proves the cigar is better; the shape is a construction choice.
The opposite term is parejo: a cigar with straight sides, an open foot, and a rounded head.
Guides: perfecto and figurados, torpedo and belicoso, size cheat-sheet.