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Synonyms

vase

American  
[veys, veyz, vahz] / veɪs, veɪz, vɑz /

noun

  • vases
    plural
  1. a vessel, as of glass, porcelain, earthenware, or metal, usually higher than it is wide, used chiefly to hold cut flowers or for decoration.


vase British  
/ vɑːz /

noun

  1. a vessel used as an ornament or for holding cut flowers

"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

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

Etymology

Origin of vase

1555–65; < French < Latin vās vessel

Explanation

The tall container you put flowers in is a vase. Thanks for the enormous bouquet of daisies — I'll need to find a large enough vase to fit them in! A vase is a glass or ceramic container that serves only a decorative function — in other words, you're unlikely to serve a guest a big glass of lemonade in a vase. Vases are generally tall and narrow, to accommodate flower stems. Some vases are curvy and others are straight. In North America, vase usually rhymes with "face," which was its original English pronunciation, though modern British speakers say it so it rhymes with "blahs" instead.

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Vocabulary lists containing vase

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:

Our collective image of a humongous horse on wheels came down from centuries’ worth of artists’ interpretations: A Greek vase from 675 BCE.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 20, 2026

On the fireplace mantel is a hot-dog candle, which matches the hot-dog vase in the kitchen, both of which go nicely with her “In My Hot Dog Era” T-shirt.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 20, 2026

The video also showed Kim presenting Lukashenko with a large mosaic vase bearing a portrait of the Belarusian, with the North Korean leader appearing to explain that crafting it involved around 30 seashells.

From Barron's Mar. 26, 2026

In turn, Kim gave Lukashenko a sword and a vase featuring a portrait of the Belarusian leader.

From BBC Mar. 26, 2026

However, the only thing that happened was that Mamá put the vase down on the table and turned around to wrap her arms around us again.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

Back at Paultons Park the zoo had devised miniature vases designed to keep the stems alive while preventing any newly hatched nymphs from falling into water.

From BBC Jul. 9, 2026

Elegant hand-blown glass vases sit beside ceramic crater pots on warm cherry shelves.

From Los Angeles Times May 18, 2026

In a trip in November 2013 to Vincenzo Caffarella, a decorative arts and antiques shop in London, £170,000 was allegedly spent on a "vast amount of property" including Venetian lamps and vases.

From BBC Apr. 28, 2026

The couple have had the chance to add some of their own flair to the room in the form of artwork that is mounted on the wall, and a few vases and plants.

From MarketWatch Mar. 24, 2026

Min was inscribing lotus blossoms and peonies between the ribbed lines of one of the melon vases.

From "A Single Shard" by Linda Sue Park

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