ornate
Americanadjective
-
elaborately or sumptuously adorned, often excessively or showily so.
They bought an ornate Louis XIV sofa.
- Synonyms:
- lavish, rich, ostentatious, showy
-
embellished with rhetoric; florid or high-flown.
an ornate style of writing.
adjective
-
heavily or elaborately decorated
-
(of style in writing) overembellished; flowery
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of ornate
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin ornātus well-equipped, adorned, originally past participle of ornāre to equip; see -ate 1
Explanation
If something is ornate — whether it's a ball gown, a set of dishes, or a poem — it seems to be covered in ornaments. It's lavish, flowery, or heavily adorned. Look at the first four letters of ornate, and you'll spot the beginning of its close relative ornament. Ornate most often describes how something looks, but it doesn't have to be visual. The prose in Victorian love letters was more ornate than the email messages people send today. The ornate gilded mirrors and enormous chandeliers in the palace at Versailles were the height of fashion in Marie Antoinette's time, but home decor is simpler today. Now, it seems too ornate.
Vocabulary lists containing ornate
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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.
Trainers clad in ornate uniforms and traditional white fur headgear led golden-bedecked stallions round a stage arena at an annual horse beauty pageant in the ultra-closed Central Asian state of Turkmenistan.
From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026
The groups first met in 2009, bonded by a shared commitment to interactive art experiences that twist reality using an ornate handmade aesthetic.
From Los Angeles Times • May 20, 2026
After Sabarsky died in 1996, Lauder shouldered on, renovating the ornate space with its grand staircase and adding a Viennese-style cafe on the ground floor.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026
“I was there, and I was a pop star — my thing was wearing ornate halos all the time,” you might say.
From Salon • Apr. 24, 2026
Many have an ornate façade of red brick, with four- or five-step stoops leading to the front door.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
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.
