stucco
Americannoun
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stuccoes,
plural
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stuccos
plural
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an exterior finish for masonry or frame walls, usually composed of cement, sand, and hydrated lime mixed with water and laid on wet.
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any of various fine plasters for decorative work, moldings, etc.
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any of various finishes made with cement, plaster, or mortar, as albarium.
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a wall, facing, molding, or other work made of such materials.
verb (used with object)
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stuccoes,
present (3rd person singular)
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stuccoed,
past participle, past
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stuccoing
present participle
noun
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a weather-resistant mixture of dehydrated lime, powdered marble, and glue, used in decorative mouldings on buildings
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any of various types of cement or plaster used for coating outside walls
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Also called: stuccowork. decorative work moulded in stucco
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
stuccosimple
-
stuccoessimple
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have stuccoedperfect
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has stuccoedperfect
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am stuccoingprogressive
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are stuccoingprogressive
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is stuccoingprogressive
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have been stuccoingperfect progressive
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has been stuccoingperfect progressive
Past
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stuccoedsimple
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had stuccoedperfect
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was stuccoingprogressive
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were stuccoingprogressive
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had been stuccoingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stucco
1590–1600; < Italian < Langobardic; compare Old High German stucki crust, piece ( German Stück )
Explanation
Stucco is a material that's used to coat ceilings, walls, and the exterior of buildings. If you travel to the southwestern United States, you'll see many homes with stucco exteriors and terra-cotta roof tiles. Stucco is a type of plaster, a substance that goes on as a wet paste and dries hard. In fact, in Italian, stucco means "plaster," from a Germanic source it shares with the Old High German stukki, or "crust." Stucco is mainly decorative, often covering metal or cinderblock, but it's also a weather-resistant coating. While regular plaster is usually smooth and white, stucco is most often textured.
Vocabulary lists containing stucco
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:
I’m a writer who has been sent out on assignment to the stucco estates of suburban Los Angeles to profile a young socialist named Hasan Piker.
From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2026
Far easier to build the observatory of brick and to spray it with stucco, approximating concrete’s smooth contours.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
As the sky darkened over the white stucco church framed in palm trees and the dry peaks of the San Bernardino Mountains, fringed teenagers made their way inside, shaking their limbs and chattering in excitement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2026
At the heart of the compound is the original four-bedroom Spanish Revival mansion, defined by white stucco walls, hand-painted ceilings, and romantic courtyards.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 5, 2026
Whether she liked it or not, Cecile had to let us inside her green stucco house.
From "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia
Compared with it how our modern towns are dwarfed, and our hasty little palaces, our stuccoes and old iron!
From Egypt (La Mort de Philae) by William Peter Baines
The colours used in the painted relief, and on the stuccoes are black, blue, red, green, and yellow; these are always kept distinct and never blended.
From How to See the British Museum in Four Visits by W. Blanchard Jerrold
But the light struck upon the gilt stuccoes opposite me, and on a large expanse of fresco, the sacrifice of Iphigenia, with Agamemnon and Achilles in Roman helmets, lappets, and knee-breeches.
From Hauntings by Vernon Lee
Thus some works of an inferior Florentine artist were ornamented with stuccoes, carving, and gilding, by the celebrated Donatello, who, in his youth, practiced this art in connection with sculpture.
From On the Old Road Vol. 1 (of 2) A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature by John Ruskin
Heroes, Cantos Most nouns ending in o add es to form the plural; as, heroes, negroes, potatoes, stuccoes, manifestoes, mosquitoes.
From Slips of Speech : a Helpful Book for Everyone Who Aspires to Correct the Everyday Errors of Speaking by John Hendricks Bechtel
“The richness of the materials used, the marbles, the stuccos decorated with gold leaf ... testifies that we are dealing with works created for the imperial family,” he says.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 9, 2023
By turning a corner, you can get the white columns of the Old South, the brown brick of Oklahoma City, the bright stuccos of Florida.
From Time Magazine Archive
The colors and textures seemed very bland compared to the warm and bright bricks and stuccos of the houses around C Average.
From "Schooled" by Gordon Korman
The ceilings, even of the passages, are of the most beautiful stuccos in the best taste of grotesque.
From Letters of Horace Walpole — Volume II by Horace Walpole
It is certain that Giulio educated a pupil as his Perino, for his stuccos; and this was, besides Primaticcio, a Gio.
From The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. IV (of 6) from the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century by Luigi Antonio Lanzi
Exposure to the southern climate and to its Spanish Colonial Revival legacy of stuccoed buildings with red tile roofs inspired local residents and their architects.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 8, 2023
He won the speaker's office, a splendid 19th century confection of rich stonework, carved plaster and gilt partitions, along a corridor from the main parliament chamber under its stuccoed dome and arcade of horseshoe arches.
From Reuters ● Jul. 15, 2022
Our eyes were immediately drawn across the street to the stuccoed brick Freemason Street Baptist Church, designed by Thomas U. Walter in the Gothic Revival style and built in 1848.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 5, 2021
Johnson was one of several top politicians who turned up to the event, held at the Lebedevs’ £6m stuccoed mansion overlooking Regent’s Park.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 22, 2019
What remained was the artificial lake and island with its two stone bridges supporting the driveway, and, by the waters edge, a crumbling stuccoed temple.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
It was just so common for me to know these things, like stuccoing the door, the house outside.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 29, 2022
As we talked, two Latinos were stuccoing a gas station across the highway.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 24, 2016
Phil had been studiously stuccoing her toast with marmalade, and she bit into it before looking at her father.
From Otherwise Phyllis by Charles Dana Gibson
He was always, brush in hand, perched up on a temporary stage, painting earnestly, fiercely, 'with the inveterate diligence of a little devil stuccoing a mud wall!' cried flaming Mr. Fuseli.
From Art in England Notes and Studies by Dutton Cook
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.
