flowery
Americanadjective
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abounding in flowers
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decorated with flowers or floral patterns
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like or suggestive of flowers
a flowery scent
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(of language or style) elaborate; ornate
Synonym Usage
See bombastic.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of flowery
Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at flower, -y 1
Explanation
Something flowery either looks, smells, or feels like flowers. You might wear flowery perfume or write a flowery poem starting with "Roses are red..." However, flowery is not a compliment when it comes to writing. If a blanket has a lot of pictures of flowers on it, it's flowery. If a scent reminds you of flowers, it's flowery. Flowery things make you think of flowers in some way. Also, flowery things are full of intricate details, maybe a little too full of them. A flowery speech might have many figures of speech but very little content. A flowery building design has lots of little touches and details. Flowery can mean something close to ornate.
Vocabulary lists containing flowery
Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 1
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Too Bright to See
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"The Open Window" and "One in a Million"
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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.
See Examples For:
In addition, she’ll offer her brutally honest thoughts on the flowery speeches he will deliver while being honored for his artistry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
She once recalled wandering into a flowery field and becoming disoriented among the seemingly endless stalks and blooms—a sensation she likened to “obliteration” and would seek to re-create in her art.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Even a few flowery sentences in “Kitchen Confidential” about lessons learned working at The Dreadnaught dwarf “Tony” in comparison.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
Because of this, she dressed in "soft, flowery, not particularly fashion-forward" clothes.
From BBC ● Jan. 24, 2026
Her dress was flowery, and a little apron with pockets was tied around her middle.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
The 30-year-old took the opportunity to use “bigger, flowerier, prettier words” in her lyrics without fear of those words not tracking on pop radio.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2020
Emperor Kien Lung wrote, 200 years or more ago, for the benefit of his children, just before he left the Flowery Kingdom for a flowerier:
From The Little Tea Book by George Washington Hood
Richmond's five-year-old Virginia Museum of Fine Arts put the whole Chrysler collection on exhibition, and 989 art lovers including Richmond's floweriest socialites went to look.
From Time Magazine Archive
"It is the airiest, floweriest, sunniest, brightest, most delightful altogether house, that ever took lodgers in!"
From The End of a Coil by Susan Warner
One can't describe the beauty of the Italian lakes, nor would one try if one could; the floweriest rhetoric can recall it only as a picture on a fireboard recalls a Claude.
From Italian Hours by Henry James
Then the strath opened out and we saw Ken flow silver-clear between the greenest and floweriest banks in the world.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
I've appointed you press agent for this institution, and we need some of your floweriest writing immediately.
From Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
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