velvety
Americanadjective
-
suggestive of or resembling velvet; smooth; soft.
velvety rose petals; a velvety voice; a velvety cream sauce.
-
(of liquor) smooth-tasting; mild; mellow.
a velvety Scotch.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of velvety
Explanation
Anything velvety is smooth or soft in some way, like creamy chocolate or a soothing voice. Have you ever felt velvet? It’s one of the smoothest fabrics. That’s why you can use the word velvety not only for things that are like velvet, but for anything smooth, whether it’s a texture, sight, or sound. The soft fur of a puppy is velvety. A lounge singer’s gentle voice is velvety. A drink that goes down easily is velvety. If something is rough, jarring, jagged, or sharp in some way, it’s the opposite of velvety.
Vocabulary lists containing velvety
The House on Mango Street
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All The Feels: Touching Words For Textures
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"The House on Mango Street" and "The Road Not Taken"
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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.
Then I added the rigatoni and enough pasta water to turn the vegetables velvety, finishing each bowl with the crisp crumbs, little pillows of chèvre and torn basil.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
Soccer’s velvety, polarizing honcho had the planet begrudgingly tossing confetti at his custom Stan Smiths.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
In the opening track “Lugares,” Selines meets her acoustic guitar strumming with a velvety croon, singing of leaping into the unknown — despite understanding the difficulties that will come from leaving home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
The velvety silhouette feels as distant as the sea, whose dark surface is sliced by the banister.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
Over it hung a velvety mass of bats, which had fouled the pillar with black guano—a different kind of guano from the green slime near the mouth of the cave.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
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.
