vase
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of vase
1555–65; < French < Latin vās vessel
Explanation
The tall container you put flowers in is a vase. Thanks for the enormous bouquet of daisies — I'll need to find a large enough vase to fit them in! A vase is a glass or ceramic container that serves only a decorative function — in other words, you're unlikely to serve a guest a big glass of lemonade in a vase. Vases are generally tall and narrow, to accommodate flower stems. Some vases are curvy and others are straight. In North America, vase usually rhymes with "face," which was its original English pronunciation, though modern British speakers say it so it rhymes with "blahs" instead.
Vocabulary lists containing vase
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Our collective image of a humongous horse on wheels came down from centuries’ worth of artists’ interpretations: A Greek vase from 675 BCE.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
When Susie pitched it to me, I didn’t even realize how perfect it was: A prunus vase is usually what they put plum blossoms in, and meiping means beautiful plum vase.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
"I can't lay my eyes on my favourite place at home, on some elements of my house, a vase, a view from my window," he said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
In fact, it goes back at least 2,500 years: An ancient vase in the Louvre carries a notice that reads, “Buy me and you’ll get a bargain.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
The space is a single room with a shelf and small love seat, and a pretty vase of flowers in the kitchen nook.
From "The House That Lou Built" by Mae Respicio
Back at Paultons Park the zoo had devised miniature vases designed to keep the stems alive while preventing any newly hatched nymphs from falling into water.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
Orbiting the fish is a constellation of things and signs: flora, flags, stars, vases, moons, arrows, a human‑headed flower, a zygote and a Christian cross.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
The couple have had the chance to add some of their own flair to the room in the form of artwork that is mounted on the wall, and a few vases and plants.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 24, 2026
She uses it to make anything from trinket boxes to ornate geometric vases to statuettes of quizzical creatures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026
Unsatisfied with the local authorities’ assessment, Choi’s brother took the vases to much higher authorities in the South Korean capital of Seoul, who had a much different reaction.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
