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ornament

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Ornament

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

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From Middle English ornament, from Old French ornement, from Latin ornamentum (“equipment, apparatus, furniture, trappings, adornment, embellishment”), from ornāre (“to equip, adorn”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

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  • (noun)
  • (verb)
    • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈɔː(ɹ)nəmənt/, /ˈɔː(ɹ)nəˌmɛnt/
    • (US) IPA(key): /ˈɔɹnəmənt/, /ˈɔɹnəˌmɛnt/, enPR: ôrʹnə-mənt, ôrʹnə-mĕnt'

Noun

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ornament (countable and uncountable, plural ornaments)

  2. An element of decoration; that which embellishes or adorns.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:decoration
    • 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 51:
      Dust are our frames; and, gilded dust, our pride / Looks only for a moment whole and sound; / Like that long-buried body of the king / Found lying with his urns and ornaments, / Which at a touch of light, an air of heaven, / Slipt into ashes and was found no more.
    • 1919, P. G. Wodehouse, My Man Jeeves:
      I'm a bit short on brain myself; the old bean would appear to have been constructed more for ornament than for use.
    • 2012 March, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist‎[1], volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 19 February 2013, page 106:
      Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.
    1. (by extension) Christmas ornament: a Christmas tree decoration.
  4. (music) A musical flourish that is unnecessary to the overall melodic or harmonic line, but serves to decorate that line.
  5. (Christianity, in the plural) The articles used in church services.
  6. (biology) A characteristic that has a decorative function (typically in order to attract a mate)

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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ornament (third-person singular simple present ornaments, present participle ornamenting, simple past and past participle ornamented)

  2. To decorate.
    We will ornament the windows with trim to make the room seem brighter.
    • 1958 October, “Liverpool to London in 1842”, in Railway Magazine, page 679:
      After this, perhaps, the next most imposing structure in Liverpool is the railway station; it is built of stone, richly ornamented with thirty-six columns of the Corinthian order.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 3”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
      But what is this on the chest? I took it up, and held it close to the light, and felt it, and smelt it, and tried every way possible to arrive at some satisfactory conclusion concerning it. I can compare it to nothing but a large door mat, ornamented at the edges with little tinkling tags something like the stained porcupine quills round an Indian moccasin.
  4. To add to.
    The editor ornamented his plain writing, making it fancier but less clear.
    • 2021 July 12, Nicholas Barber, “The French Dispatch: Four stars for Wes Anderson's latest”, in BBC‎[2], archived from the original on 2 October 2026:
      Not a scene goes by that hasn't been ornamented with a split screen, a freeze frame, a caption, a voice-over, a switch between monochrome and colour, or a change of the aspect radio[sic – meaning ratio].

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Catalan

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Etymology

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    Learned borrowing from Latin ōrnāmentum.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    ornament m (plural ornaments)

    1. ornament

    Derived terms

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    Further reading

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    Norwegian Bokmål

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    Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
    Wikipedia no

    Etymology

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    From Latin ornamentum.

    Noun

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    ornament n (definite singular ornamentet, indefinite plural ornament or ornamenter, definite plural ornamenta or ornamentene)

    1. an ornament

    Derived terms

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    References

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    Norwegian Nynorsk

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    Etymology

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    From Latin ornamentum.

    Noun

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    ornament n (definite singular ornamentet, indefinite plural ornament, definite plural ornamenta)

    1. an ornament

    Derived terms

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    References

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    Polish

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    Etymology

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    Etymology tree
    Proto-Indo-European *h₂er-der.
    Proto-Italic *ordōder.
    Latin ōrdō
    Latin *ōrdnō
    Latin ōrnō
    Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥
    Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥tom
    Proto-Italic *-mentom
    Latin -mentum
    Latin ōrnāmentumlbor.
    Polish ornament

      Learned borrowing from Latin ōrnāmentum.

      Pronunciation

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      • IPA(key): /ɔrˈna.mɛnt/
      • Audio:(file)
      • Rhymes: -amɛnt
      • Syllabification: or‧na‧ment

      Noun

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      ornament m inan

      1. (architecture, art, typography) ornament, adornment
      2. (music) ornament

      Declension

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      Declension of ornament
      singular plural
      nominative ornament ornamenty
      genitive ornamentu ornamentów
      dative ornamentowi ornamentom
      accusative ornament ornamenty
      instrumental ornamentem ornamentami
      locative ornamencie ornamentach
      vocative ornamencie ornamenty

      Descendants

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      • → Ukrainian: орна́мент (ornáment)

      Further reading

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      • “ornament”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎[3] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
      • “ornament”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎[4] (in Polish)

      Romanian

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      Etymology

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      Borrowed from French ornament, from Latin ornamentum. By surface analysis, orna +‎ -ment.

      Noun

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      ornament n (plural ornamente)

      1. ornament

      Declension

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      singular plural
      indefinite definite indefinite definite
      nominative-accusative ornament ornamentul ornamente ornamentele
      genitive-dative ornament ornamentului ornamente ornamentelor
      vocative ornamentule ornamentelor

      Swedish

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      Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
      Wikipedia sv

      Noun

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      ornament n

      1. an ornament

      Declension

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      Declension of ornament
      nominative genitive
      singular indefinite ornament ornaments
      definite ornamentet ornamentets
      plural indefinite ornament ornaments
      definite ornamenten ornamentens
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      References

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