ornate

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Rich in merits, his speeches were nevertheless faulty to a critical ear; the ornate was apt to turn to the gaudy, the dignified to the pompous.

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Elaborately, heavily, and often excessively ornamented.
  2. adjective Flashy, showy, or florid in style or manner; flowery.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • The coding here was clunky and overly ornate, a gothic cathedral of a virtuality compared to the streamlined superscrapers of modern simulations, but it made his job as easy as tracking someone in virgin snow. —  F ;SF; - vol 096 issue 03 - March 1999
  • The lobby was large and ornate, and there was a fountain and a pool in which fish swam. —  028 - The Roar Devil
  • His language was ornate, his style was terse and beautiful; in conversation he was voluble and transcendently entertaining; knew everybody and everything; never seemed to read, and yet was always prepared in his cases, and seemed to be a lawyer by intuition. —  The Memories of Fifty Years
  • The bedroom was extremely ornate, and smelt of stale incense. —  Enter A Murderer - Ngaio Marsh - Roderick Alleyn 02: 1935
  • His armor and garments were rich and ornate, after the fashion of a Zingaran grandee. —  Conan -- The Stories from Weird Tales (1932-1936)
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

gild ·  ornamental ·  wooden ·  antique ·  elegant ·  jeweled ·  gothic ·  old-fashioned ·  shiny ·  wrought-iron ·  sumptuous ·  elaborate
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Latin ōrnātus, past participle of ōrnāre, to embellish; see ar- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Latin ornatus, past participle of ornare (later Italian ornare = Spanish Portuguese ornar = French orner), equip, adorn: see orn.
  2. from Latin ornatus, past participle: see the verb.
 

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/ɔrˈneɪt/
by American Heritage

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