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• art deco
  art deco

  noun

  a style of decorative art developed originally in the 1920s with a revival in the 1960s, marked chiefly by geometric motifs, curvilinear forms, sharply defined outlines, often bold colors, and the use of synthetic materials, as plastics.
• Art Deco
  Art Deco

art deco

American  

Or Art Deco

noun

1. a style of decorative art developed originally in the 1920s with a revival in the 1960s, marked chiefly by geometric motifs, curvilinear forms, sharply defined outlines, often bold colors, and the use of synthetic materials, as plastics.

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Art Deco British  

/ ˈdɛkəʊ /

noun

1. 1. a style of interior decoration, jewellery, architecture, etc, at its height in the 1930s and characterized by geometrical shapes, stylized natural forms, and symmetrical utilitarian designs adapted to mass production

   2. ( as modifier )

      an Art-Deco carpet

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Etymology

Origin of art deco

1965–70; < French Art Déco, shortened from Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, an exposition of modern decorative and industrial arts held in Paris, France, in 1925

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

art deco Art Deco

Sure, the buildings were crumbling, but the art deco architecture was historic.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026

They include the late Barbara Capitman, a preservationist who led the effort to get protective status for the neighborhood’s art deco buildings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026

Prices have increased in places like Miramar, Nuevo Vedado and Vedado -- neighborhoods with neoclassical mansions, embassies and art deco jewels.

From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026

Trump shared photos of the new bathroom on social media, saying it had been "renovated in the 1940s in an art deco green tile style, which was totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era".

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2025

Mom said the art deco murals at Rockefeller Center were disappointing, not nearly as good as some of her own paintings.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

Consider the Van Cleef bib necklace, a dazzling Art Deco piece fashioned with 673 diamonds set in platinum that was commissioned in 1938 by Queen Nazli of Egypt.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

In a November notice to contractors, the VA described the renovation of the vacant Art Deco structure as a “seed” project for Trump’s executive order to create a National Center for Warrior Independence.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

Squint, and it looks like an Art Deco anatomical illustration of our intestinal piping.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Mounted slightly above head height and illuminated like a shrine, it flickers among Art Deco radio, fierce guardian and modern sculpture.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

Mr. Go much prefers to sit in the Show Room, in the stained Art Deco theater seats that originally belonged to a movie house in Oakland, now demolished.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides