flowery

American  

[flau-uh-ree] / ˈflaʊ ə ri /

adjective

flowerier, floweriest

1. covered with or having many flowers.

2. decorated with floral designs.

3. rhetorically ornate or precious.

   flowery language.

   Synonyms:

   elaborate, showy, florid

4. resembling a flower in fragrance.

   a Rhine wine with a flowery aroma.

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flowery British  

/ ˈflaʊərɪ /

adjective

1. abounding in flowers

2. decorated with flowers or floral patterns

3. like or suggestive of flowers

   a flowery scent

4. (of language or style) elaborate; ornate

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Synonym Usage

See bombastic.

Other Word Forms

• floweriness
  noun
• unflowery
  adjective
• flowerily
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of flowery

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at flower, -y ¹

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flowery flowerier floweriest

Without billions in funding and a stadium site, the rest is flowery prose, but there is no sense in dismissing any potential bidder a year or two before the bidding opens.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 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

The windows of the Druzhkivka tram were open on a sweltering summer afternoon as women wearing flowery dresses and men in light shirts made their way to the weekend market.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

"Zhao's ban has been served and he is perfectly entitled to be competing again, but I've found the flowery language since his return somewhat befuddling given the circumstances," said snooker journalist Nick Metcalfe.

From BBC ● May 3, 2025

Inside Sitti’s arched main room, they sat on flowery gingham mattresses arranged in a circle on the floor.

From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye

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

I judge the institution to have been in its floweriest state, probably now in Hakon Jarl's time.

From Early Kings of Norway by Thomas Carlyle

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

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

To Claude it seemed as though nothing older or larger could be so exactly in the prime of beauty; the path to learning was the widest, floweriest, fragrantest path he had ever trod.

From Bonaventure A Prose Pastoral of Acadian Louisiana by George Washington Cable

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