tracery
Americannoun
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traceries
plural
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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
-
any fine pattern resembling this
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
See Examples For:
Amid this gentle drama, Jewett depicts the marshland, where “the lines of the creeks made a broad tracery whichever way one looked.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 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
Yet, his exquisite graphite drawing positions a viewer behind an iron railing decorated with the elegant tracery of the king’s monogram.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2023
The shifting facade mixed the ornate tracery of Gothic cathedrals, the slit windows and bulky turrets of Scottish castles, and the heart and plant shaped openings that are all Mackintosh.
From New York Times ● Jul. 2, 2018
The blade was engraved with a delicate silver tracery of a mountain sky; its pommel was a falcon's head, its cross-guard fashioned into the shape of wings.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
The spots begin to move, and slip-sliding traceries of luminosity explode.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2023
Early on the Day before Christmas, thin, white clouds seemed to create lacy traceries as they crisscrossed a sky of pure blue.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 24, 2021
Full of linear traceries, they came foremost from his widow, the painter Lee Krasner, and help measure her growing artistic independence.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2015
Charles Emerson's oil-on-canvas "Trajectory of Angels" evokes the essence rather than specifics of angelic beings making fiery, ethereal traceries across a backdrop of autumnal colors.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2012
Day after day the sunbeams, ever new, shall come and go across its pillars, like a harp touched by an invisible hand, or be caught in its delicate traceries and entrapped down into the shadows.
From The Ravens and the Angels With Other Stories and Parables by Elizabeth Rundle Charles
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
