tracery

[trey-suh-ree]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR tracery ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural trac·er·ies.

ornamental work consisting of ramified ribs, bars, or the like, as in the upper part of a Gothic window, in panels, screens, etc.

any delicate, interlacing work of lines, threads, etc., as in carving or embroidery; network.

Origin of tracery

late Middle English word dating back to 1425–75; see origin at trace¹, -ery

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for tracery

filigree, screen, network, picture, scheme, layout, form, map, pattern, study, idea, method, construction, architecture, composition, model, arrangement, drawing, plan, lace

Examples from the Web for tracery

Historical Examples of tracery

The roof is battlemented, and the tracery in the windows is graceful.
Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts
Rosalind Northcote
The tracery is geometrical, and the shafts in the angles of the splays are banded.
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Durham
J. E. Bygate
It is of an octangular shape, and the outside is adorned by tracery work.
Notes and Queries, Number 207, October 15, 1853
Various
In the tracery beneath, at the head of the mullion, was a statue.
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ely
W. D. Sweeting
They were evidently not wholly made for the tracery, though parts of them may have been.
Highways and Byways in Surrey
Eric Parker

British Dictionary definitions for tracery

tracery

noun plural -eries

a pattern of interlacing ribs, esp as used in the upper part of a Gothic window, etc

any fine pattern resembling this

Derived Formstraceried, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for tracery

mid-15c., "a place for drawing," formed in English from trace (v.) + -ery. Architectural sense, in reference to intersecting rib work in the upper part of a gothic window, is attested from 1660s. "Introduced by Wren, who described it as a masons' term," according to Weekley.