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
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.
Today, visitors enter via the ornate Nativity façade, on the church’s eastern side.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Women in lace mantillas and gold jewelry pass on their way to somewhere ornate.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
The current West End production includes the massive, ornate spherical chandelier and the stage-to-ceiling travel — “a happy medium between the two worlds,” said Sklar-Heyn.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
"It's very difficult to repair, but at the same time, it's quite iconic, and a very old, ornate structure that's a huge part of the county's cross-border history," said councillor Peter Strong.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
She found herself torn between the hunting daggers and a lovely rapier with an ornate bell-guard.
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
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.
