curlicue
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of curlicue
Explanation
A curlicue is a spiral, twist, or wavy shape that's added as a flourish. You might personalize your signature by adding a couple of curlicues to the first letter of your name. In design, architecture, and works of art, a curly spiral can be called a curlicue. The black wrought iron fence surrounding a rose garden may feature curlicues, and formal calligraphy, with its swirls and flourishes, is full of curlicues. This word is an Americanism based on curly, with the cue probably stemming from the French queue, "tail." An earlier — and more adorable — word with the same meaning was curlie-wurlie.
Vocabulary lists containing curlicue
The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street
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The Great Gilly Hopkins
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Milkweed
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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.
On “Rated OG,” he adds intriguing curlicue accents to a chord progression rendered on vibraphone as a forceful, distorted bass riff chugs along underneath.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 28, 2025
Get it really cold and then a giant twist, not those little curlicue twists that they do sometimes.
From Salon • May 1, 2025
The wooden figure—with its shaggy white hair, black curlicue mustache, and cherubic pink cheeks—bears little resemblance to Donald Trump’s signature comb over and bronzed skin.
From Slate • Jun. 10, 2023
The movements that follow are arboreal portraits in music: a puckish, dancing duet for the bassoon and a violin; a mysterious nocturne; curlicue phrases choked into fragments; and patient brooding.
From New York Times • Feb. 8, 2022
How he had copied the group of letters out on a piece of brown paper; copied, as illiterate people do, every curlicue, arch, and bend in the letters, and presented it to the midwife.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
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.
