needlepoint
Americannoun
adjective
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done or executed in needlepoint.
a needlepoint cushion.
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noting a lace needlepoint lace in which a needle works out the design upon parchment or paper.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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embroidery done on canvas with the same stitch throughout so as to resemble tapestry
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another name for point lace
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of needlepoint
Explanation
Needlepoint is a traditional art form that's done with thread on thick fabric. If your grandmother has a pillow with "Home Sweet Home" stitched on it, it's probably a work of needlepoint. When you do needlepoint, you use various colors of a thick thread or an even thicker yarn, stitching it through a stiff material with an open, grid-like weave. Using a pattern or your own design, your needlepoint creation might, for example, be a portrait of a cat you can on the wall or make into a pillow. Another type of needlepoint is lace that's made with a needle — this is the earlier meaning of the word, from the mid-1800s.
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.
Diane Briones Williams’s textiles at Official Welcome inject international flair into Western art history by rendering traditional scenes—landscapes, still lifes and genre painings—in needlepoint, then adding elements that touch on the artist’s Filipino heritage.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026
Inside Dorothy’s Kansan house, a once-shadowed frying pan on the wall now dangles front and center, as does a digitally added “Home Sweet Home” needlepoint nailed to the threshold.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 3, 2025
The two also became business partners, opening a needlepoint shop on the Upper East Side called 2 Needles.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 7, 2024
Zoe Kurland: Even though the Troy School was different, these learned women still found themselves graduating into a world where they would be expected to cook and clean and needlepoint and smell nice and whatever.
From Scientific American • Nov. 9, 2023
“Mama made this needlepoint sign that says, ‘If all our troubles were hung on a line, you’d choose yours and I’d choose mine.’”
From "Wish" by Barbara O'Connor
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.
