tracery
Americannoun
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ornamental work consisting of ramified ribs, bars, or the like, as in the upper part of a Gothic window, in panels, screens, etc.
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any delicate, interlacing work of lines, threads, etc., as in carving or embroidery; network.
noun
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a pattern of interlacing ribs, esp as used in the upper part of a Gothic window, etc
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any fine pattern resembling this
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of tracery
late Middle English word dating back to 1425–75; see origin at trace 1, -ery
Vocabulary lists containing tracery
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.
Among them are working drawings that prescribe the profile of every block of stone, each keyed to its exact place in the building, whether gable, tracery or buttress.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 18, 2026
The masons have now moved on to the North Cloisters, where they will spend the next four years restoring elaborately carved tracery and Purbeck columns, bases and capitals that have split.
From BBC • Sep. 10, 2023
The interior is what I’d call “Victorian futurist”: glazed brick and tracery wrought-iron staircases and balustrades.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 19, 2022
Most of the external walls of the 250-foot-long, 150-foot-wide church still stand, along with its exquisite window tracery and outlines of the sacristy, chapter house and dining hall.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 13, 2018
Ralph took in the thumbnail moon, the young trees like tracery, edging the indigo sky.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
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.
