ornate
/ɔːˈneɪt
/adjective
1Elaborately or highly decorated: an ornate wrought-iron railing...
- While poster art continued to prosper, the ornate details of Art Nouveau vanished.
- They have been found before but rarely with such ornate decoration and never in South Lakeland.
- The rest of our time is spent in silence, until we arrive at an ornate door decorated with cranes and dragons.
Synonyms
elaborate, decorated, embellished, adorned, ornamented, fancy, over-elaborate, fussy, busy, ostentatious, showy, baroque, rococo, florid, wedding-cake, gingerbread
informal flash, flashy
1.1(Of literary style) using unusual words and complex constructions: peculiarly ornate and metaphorical language...
- His German epic entitled Parzifal is a massive literary production and was highly ornate in style.
- Linguistic style: Someone may write in an ornate style, speak in a laconic style, and have an aggressive style when arguing.
- As a consequence, these genres do not strive to show events in their experiential immediacy and do not use an excessively ornate style of presentation.
Synonyms
elaborate, over-elaborate, flowery, florid, flamboyant;
grandiose, pompous, pretentious, affected, high-flown, high-sounding, orotund, fulsome, magniloquent, grandiloquent, rhetorical, oratorical, bombastic, laboured, strained, overwrought, overblown, overripe, overdone, convoluted, stilted, turgid, inflated
informal highfalutin, purple
rare tumid, pleonastic, euphuistic, aureate, Ossianic, fustian, hyperventilated
Derivatives
ornately
/ adverb ...- In 1628, the ornately carved and heavily gunned ship had sunk - after less than a mile of her maiden voyage.
- It's Spanish-style front offices contain a cavernous, ornately designed room that once served as a Masonic lodge.
- Inside, the ceiling's ornately moulded plaster-work has been delicately repaired and the entire room whitewashed.
ornateness
/ noun ...- I love the style, the architecture, the richness, and the ornateness that can only come from those early days.
- He simply juxtaposes the astounding ornateness and sculptural qualities of the Indian works with his own simple, starkly beautiful geometricism.
- Garish handles, knobs and bases cast from Victorian lamps and furniture decorate her works, parodying the stultifying ornateness that marked the era.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin ornatus 'adorned', past participle of ornare.