ornate
Americanadjective
-
elaborately or sumptuously adorned, often excessively or showily so.
They bought an ornate Louis XIV sofa.
- Synonyms:
- lavish, rich, ostentatious, showy
-
embellished with rhetoric; florid or high-flown.
an ornate style of writing.
adjective
-
heavily or elaborately decorated
-
(of style in writing) overembellished; flowery
Other Word Forms
- ornately adverb
- ornateness noun
- unornate adjective
- unornately adverb
- unornateness noun
Etymology
Origin of ornate
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin ornātus well-equipped, adorned, originally past participle of ornāre to equip; -ate 1
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.
Yet when movies arrived in the early 20th century, ornate theaters wanted nothing to do with the noisy snack.
It started with the concept album “A Curious Feeling,” its obsessive autumnal gloom and ornate melodies made even more memorable by the monochrome opacity of the production.
From Los Angeles Times
Every good soup, no matter how humble or ornate, seems to rely on at least a few of the same quiet categories: something aromatic to begin, something hearty to anchor it, something savory for depth.
From Salon
The setups were delightful and there was also the style, with all its arabesque flourishes and attention to ornate detail.
An attendant kept track of each seller's position in the queue, and helped to deposit ornate pendants, hammered rings and commemorative coins into an opening in the device.
From Barron's
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.
