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
- ornately adverb
- ornateness noun
- unornate adjective
- unornately adverb
- unornateness noun
Etymology
Origin of ornate
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin ornātus well-equipped, adorned, originally past participle of ornāre to equip; -ate 1
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.
The group’s self-titled debut album came out in 1975; at the time, the band had a more ornate sound à la Genesis.
From Los Angeles Times
Her ornate wood frame is perched atop four curved wooden legs, her arms as high as her back, and she’s been repaired with duct tape in more than a few places.
From Literature
The bird uses this ornate tail to attract mates, yet its forest habitat has been eroded by population growth, farming, and logging, leaving it confined to a small area of the northern Andes.
From BBC
It was a large table model with an ornate shell-shaped speaker and it brought us many years of joy.
From Literature
A lighted SyberJet logo hung above the bar, and ornate chandeliers cast the wood-paneled room, designed in elegant grays, in a soft glow.
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.
