valance
Americannoun
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valances
plural
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a short curtain or piece of drapery that is hung from the edge of a canopy, from the frame of a bed, etc.
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a short ornamental piece of drapery placed across the top of a window.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of valance
1400–50; late Middle English; perhaps after Valence, French city noted for cloth-making
Explanation
The flouncy bit of fabric at the top of a window is a valance. Sometimes, people use a valance to cover an unattractive curtain rod. Don't confuse valance with valence — you'll only use the latter when you're talking about atoms in chemistry class. A valance, on the other hand, is a decorative piece of drapery, part of a fairly elaborate window treatment. In Victorian times, valances were extremely popular, used by many home decorators. Experts suspect this word comes from the Old French valer, "go down or let down."
Vocabulary lists containing valance
"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 2
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Vocabulary from Readings 4, Unit 9
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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:
At the center, resting on a plinth in front of a shallow niche and beneath a graceful valance of laurel, is French’s striking bronze portrait bust of Hunt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
Working with her sister, a seamstress, she made a textile valance for the ceiling and added long curtains on a concealed rod that can wrap the sleeping spaces in fabric.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 28, 2023
Hybridization is introduced to explain the geometry of bonding orbitals in valance bond theory.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
Bob, can you talk a little bit about, the other fascinating valance around this today, at least in the public conversation around the testimony, is the notion that there can be no requisite mens rea.
From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2017
Scott stooped, and raised the valance with the greatest precaution.
From The Manor House School by Arthur A. Dixon
That level of period detail extends to Bradbury & Bradbury wallpaper, ball-trim swag valances and wall air vents laser-cut in Moorish patterns.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The studio quietly held it in storage after wrapping production on the original in 2014, with its upholstered valances and window blinds still intact.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 18, 2022
For the past 28 years, these floor-to-ceiling curtains with blue banding and six curved Empire valances, installed on Clinton’s Inauguration Day, have garnered bipartisan support.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 30, 2021
The Great Chamber bedroom features cushioned window seats, a lovely canopy bed with yellow valances highlighted in red and green, and a wooden highboy.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 5, 2018
After satisfying myself of the fastening of the door, I began to walk about the room, peering round each article of furniture, tucking up the valances of the bed, and opening its curtains wide.
From The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
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.
