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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Tin-glazed earthenware that is often richly colored and decorated, especially an earthenware of this type produced in Italy.
  2. n. Pottery made in imitation of this earthenware.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Decorative enameled pottery, especially that of Italy from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. The name is applied particularly to the more richly adorned pieces, the colors of which have remarkable intensity. (See mezzamajolica). Modern writers on ceramics have attempted to limit it to lustered pottery, especially that of the middle ages and the sixteenth century, made in Majorca or in Spain, or more especially in Italy, in supposed imitation of ware from the two former countries.
  2. n. As applied to modern pottery, a kind of ware which in effects of color partly imitates the pottery above defined, especially in large pieces used for architectural decoration, garden-seats, vases, etc. This ware is usually much harder and more perfectly manufactured than the ancient, but is inferior in decorative effect, being cast in molds and having a mechanical look.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A fine Italian glazed earthenware, coated with opaque white enamel and ornamented with metallic colours
  2. n. Any other kind of glazed coloured earthenware or faience

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A kind of pottery, with opaque glazing and showy decoration, which reached its greatest perfection in Italy in the 16th century.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. highly decorated earthenware with a glaze of tin oxide

Etymologies

  1. Majolica is an Anglicized version of the Italian maiolica. It is named after the Island of Majorca (formerly known as Maiolica), which once was a commerce center for work produced in Valencia, Spain. (Wiktionary)
  2. Italian maiolica, from Medieval Latin Māiōlica, Majorca (where it was made), alteration of Late Latin Māiōrica. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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Lists

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  • chained_bear "A typical late-nineteenth-century sideboard would also have displayed cut glass, examples of hand-painted French or German porcelain, 'antique' German or Italian glass, a German beer stein, a brass samovar, or a decorative piece of pottery—possibly Delft or majolica."
    —Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 68 Apr 12, 2010

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‘majolica’ has been looked up 1219 times, loved by 1 person, added to 15 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 19.