encaustic

American  

[en-kaw-stik] / ɛnˈkɔ stɪk /

adjective

1. painted with wax colors fixed with heat, or with any process in which colors are burned in.

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noun

1. a work of art produced by an encaustic process.

encaustic British  

/ ɪnˈkɒstɪk /

adjective

1. decorated by any process involving burning in colours, esp by inlaying coloured clays and baking or by fusing wax colours to the surface

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noun

1. the process of burning in colours

2. a product of such a process

Other Word Forms

• encaustically adverb

Etymology

Origin of encaustic

1650–60; < Latin encausticus < Greek enkaustikós for burning in. See en- ², caustic

Example Sentences

She is painted in encaustic, a beeswax medium that is very difficult to work with.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026

In the adjoining bathroom, you’ll find brass switchplates and a hand-drawn and -painted black-and-white encaustic tile inspired by European antique bobbin furniture legs.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2025

That awe became a throughline, one that took many forms during Nachume’s career — landscapes, abstractism, linework, encaustic wax, colorism.

From New York Times • Jun. 16, 2023

Four of the icons - encaustic paintings on wood from Saint Catherine's Monastery in Egypt's Sinai desert - date from the 6th and early 7th centuries.

From Reuters • Jun. 13, 2023

The nature of this Punic wax, which was the essential ingredient of the ancient painting in encaustic, has not been definitely ascertained.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 3 "Electrostatics" to "Engis" by Various