decoration

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act, process, technique, or art of decorating.
• noun Something used to decorate.
• noun An emblem of honor, such as a medal or badge.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of decorating or adorning with something becoming or ornamental; the art of adorning, ornamenting, or embellishing.
• noun The conferring of a badge, as of an order, or a medal of honor; hence, the badge or medal conferred.
• noun That which embellishes; anything which decorates or adorns; an ornament.
• noun In music, a general term for the various melodic embellishments, as the trill, the appoggiatura, etc.
• noun In pyrotechny, the compositions placed in port-fires, rockets, paper shells, etc., to make a brilliant display when the case is exploded.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of adorning, embellishing, or honoring; ornamentation.
• noun That which adorns, enriches, or beautifies; something added by way of embellishment; ornament.
• noun Specifically, any mark of honor to be worn upon the person, as a medal, cross, or ribbon of an order of knighthood, bestowed for services in war, great achievements in literature, art, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The act of adorning, embellishing, or honoring; ornamentation.
• noun That which adorns, enriches, or beautifies; something added by way of embellishment; ornament.
• noun Specifically, any mark of honor to be worn upon the person, as a medal, cross, or ribbon of an order of knighthood, bestowed for services in war, great achievements in literature, art, etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the act of decorating something (in the hope of making it more attractive)
• noun an award for winning a championship or commemorating some other event
• noun something used to beautify