mural
Americannoun
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murals
plural
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a large picture painted or affixed directly on a wall or ceiling.
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a greatly enlarged photograph attached directly to a wall.
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a wallpaper pattern representing a landscape or the like, often with very widely spaced repeats so as to produce the effect of a mural painting on a wall of average size; a trompe l'oeil.
adjective
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of, relating to, or resembling a wall.
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executed on or affixed to a wall.
mural inscriptions.
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pertaining to any of several astronomical instruments that were affixed to a wall aligned on the plane of a meridian, and were formerly used to measure the altitude of celestial bodies.
a mural quadrant; a mural circle.
noun
adjective
Discover More
The Mexican artist Diego Rivera was noted for his production of murals.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mural
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin mūrālis, equivalent to mūr ( us ) wall + -ālis -al 1
Explanation
A mural is a large-scale painting usually done on a wall. Diego Rivera, the Mexican muralist, is famous for the plaster murals he painted on the walls at Rockefeller Center in the 1930s. Famous murals include the wall designs in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in Rome, and the Coit Tower murals in San Francisco. Many murals were created during the Renaissance, and again during the New Deal. They are also common features of urban settings — painted on the outsides of buildings and on playground walls.
Vocabulary lists containing mural
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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:
They include a wall that has been covered in stuffed animals and a ceiling mural that was inspired by the drawings of his daughter, Sovereign.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
Standing in front of his mural, depicting the face of a girl with a feathered headdress, he laments that many artists were victims of the gangs and are now "disappeared."
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
A mural with the eyes of the late president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, is seen on a wall in Macuto..
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
In the courthouse lobby, a hand-painted mural celebrates the county’s history.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
“That’s me and Grams,” Lovey said, catching me staring at the mural.
From "The Boy in the Black Suit" by Jason Reynolds
More than 200 murals have been created since the festival began, which, in addition to Salvadoran artists, has also featured artists from Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Peru and Argentina.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
The Florida home has a private boardwalk to the Atlantic and hand-painted murals in the dining room.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
As Papas covered more and more of the city, he began growing an appreciation for various architecturally-significant neighborhoods as well as the many murals across large swaths of South and East L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Like Moo Deng and Neil the Seal before him, he is the latest cute, distinctive and seemingly chaotic creature to be immortalised in amateur footage, sometimes cringeworthy brand posts, and even murals.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Through the windows above me I saw vague murals along the walls.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
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.
