ornate
Pronunciation
  • (America) IPA: /ɔɹˈneɪt/
Adjective

ornate

  1. Elaborately ornamented, often to excess.
    • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter V, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326 ↗:
      The house of Ruthven was a small but ultra-modern limestone affair, between Madison and Fifth ; […]. As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as “near-aissance.”
  2. Flashy, flowery or showy
  3. Finely finished, as a style of composition.
    • [1644], [John Milton], Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib, [London: Printed for Thomas Underhill and/or for Thomas Johnson], OCLC 946735316 ↗:
      a graceful and ornate rhetoric
Related terms Verb

ornate (ornates, present participle ornating; past and past participle ornated)

  1. (obsolete) To adorn; to honour.
    • They may ornate and sanctify the name of God.



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