garland
noun
a wreath or festoon of flowers, leaves, or other material, worn for ornament or as an honor or hung on something as a decoration.
garland
1 American
[gahr-luhnd]
/ ˈgɑr lənd /
noun
-
garlands
plural
-
a wreath or festoon of flowers, leaves, or other material, worn for ornament or as an honor or hung on something as a decoration.
A garland of laurel was placed on the winner's head.
-
a representation of such a wreath or festoon.
-
a collection of short literary pieces, as poems and ballads; literary miscellany.
-
Nautical. a band, collar, or grommet, as of rope.
verb (used with object)
-
garlands,
present (3rd person singular)
-
garlanded,
past participle, past
-
garlanding
present participle
Garland
2
American
[gahr-luhnd]
/ ˈgɑr lənd /
noun
-
Hamlin 1860–1940, U.S. novelist, short-story writer, and poet.
-
Judy Frances Gumm, 1922–69, U.S. singer and actress.
-
a city in NE Texas, near Dallas.
-
a male or female given name.
garland
1
British
/ ˈɡɑːlənd /
noun
-
a wreath or festoon of flowers, leaves, etc, worn round the head or neck or hung up
-
a representation of such a wreath, as in painting, sculpture, etc
-
a collection of short literary pieces, such as ballads or poems; miscellany or anthology
-
nautical a ring or grommet of rope
verb
Garland
2
British
/ ˈɡɑːlənd /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
garlandsimple
-
garlandssimple
-
have garlandedperfect
-
has garlandedperfect
-
am garlandingprogressive
-
are garlandingprogressive
-
is garlandingprogressive
-
have been garlandingperfect progressive
-
has been garlandingperfect progressive
Past
-
garlandedsimple
-
had garlandedperfect
-
was garlandingprogressive
-
were garlandingprogressive
-
had been garlandingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of garland
1275–1325; Middle English ger ( e ) lande, garlande < Old French < ?
Explanation
A garland is a circular arrangement of flowers, worn or hung for decoration. Think of the strings of pine and holly people hang at holiday time, or the ring of roses they put around the Kentucky Derby winner's neck. First recorded circa 1300, the word garland in the simplest terms means a circle of flowers or other greenery. Hawaiian leis are a type of garland, as are holiday wreaths and the little flower crowns that flower girls wear at weddings. If you want to get spiritual about garlands, you can refer back to this Buddha quote: "Fashion your life as a garland of beautiful deeds."
Vocabulary lists containing garland
Forged by Fire
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"To an Athlete Dying Young" by A. E. Housman
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 9
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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:
Unlike the soft, pliable versions of the Christ child in his early Madonnas, this is a monumental, muscular putto, using his strength to hold that garland aloft.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
“If you had a tree or some garland with 1,000 lights, it might have 800. Things will just get watered down, and so you will be paying the same, if not more, for less.”
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 8, 2026
When fall rolls around, they loop a simple garland of leaves around the bar—nothing fancy, just a whisper of the season.
From Salon ● Nov. 25, 2025
Or why spend $30 on a holiday garland when you could make something similar out of shopping-bag cardboard?
From Slate ● Feb. 15, 2025
A garland of yellow and orange marigolds was placed around my neck, and I sat down across from my bridegroom.
From "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan
Nonetheless, the team will still feature plenty of intrigue roster-wise, with a mix of youngsters “doing TikToks” and “old heads” trying to keep up, as Garland described it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
Garland himself, 26, enters his first full season in L.A. as the team’s go-to scorer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Justice Department, working for then-attorney general and deputy attorney general Janet Reno and Merrick Garland.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Ray Garland was already on the USS Tennessee, moored at Pearl Harbor’s Battleship Row, when the Japanese attacked.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
“Besides, I shall play ‘Love a Garland Is’ and ‘Lament of a Lass.’
From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli
Decorating their soldiers with colourful garlands, hundreds of Afghans rallied in border provinces to decry Pakistan killing civilians and to show support for their troops battling at the frontier.
From Barron's ● Mar. 5, 2026
There are also many things it isn’t: no bright green garlands, no mixing of plaids in the same room, and no gift bags under the tree.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 22, 2025
The 50p decorations started what became a two-month endeavour, looking for retro baubles, garlands, and anything she could find to recreate those special years growing up in the '90s.
From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2025
Avery Colvert, who founded Altadena Girls in January as a 14-year-old, hung garlands and decorations around the 12,000-square-foot complex, beaming that what she’d built was at last open to the world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025
He remembers decorating it clumsily with garlands and tinsel and a string of lights that made his father nervous.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Our streets are garlanded with “Gracias, Gustavo” banners and billboards.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
She hit the buzzer at the first high chain-link fence, which was garlanded with a spool of razor wire atop.
From Slate ● May 2, 2025
Samnite bronze head, a rare Waldesian Evangelical community and an ancient annual pageant with pagan roots that venerates a circular cane garlanded in wild cyclamen flowers.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
"We didn't expect the whole village to come out and greet us. They garlanded us," says Mr Lakhan's wife, Geeta.
From BBC ● May 29, 2023
She stops winding, leaving me with my hands still garlanded with animal hair, and takes the cigarette end from her mouth to butt it out.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
Manjhiyain, who died last month, was just 15 when she was ostracised by her tribe - the Santhals - for garlanding India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru 63 years ago.
From BBC ● Dec. 13, 2023
They hung a poster for Ms. Leiker amid the photos and flowers garlanding a security fence outside the shuttered King Soopers.
From New York Times ● Apr. 9, 2021
And in 105- degree heat, hundreds of well-wishers leaned out from balconies, snapped photos and pushed forward to greet him, garlanding him with marigolds, pelting him with flower petals and offering sweets.
From Washington Post ● May 27, 2015
Photograph: Allstar/Universal Pictures; David James; Allstar After indulging Europe by garlanding The Artist last year and The King's Speech in 2011, the Oscars seem set to come home.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 21, 2013
On another wall was a framed photograph of Comrade Pillai garlanding Comrade E. M. S. Namboodiripad.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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.
