adornment

UK/əˈdɔːnm(ə)nt/US/əˈdɔːnm(ə)nt/

nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,080 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: adornments

An adornment is something added to make a person or thing look finer. Without adornment.

The phrase without adornment is the commonest use and means plain in a complimentary way. An adornment is added rather than built in, which is what separates it from a feature.

Definitions of adornment

1nounadornmentSomething added to make a person or thing look finer.C2
“The room had no adornment beyond one painting.”

adornment is a decoration.

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*h₂er-
Latin
adōrnō
Middle English
adornen
English
adorn
English, today
adornment

From adorn + -ment. adorn comes from Middle English adornen, adournen, from Latin adōrnō; from ad- + ōrnō. See adore, ornate. Replaced earlier Middle English aournen (“to adorn”) borrowed from Old French aorner, from the same Latin source.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

adornment in the wild

An adornment is generally an accessory or ornament worn to enhance the beauty or status of the wearer.
Adornment
Items of adornment are also used by warriors, and by other members of the military to show rank or achievement.
Adornment
In addition to being an adornment, a clitoral hood piercing can enhance sexual pleasure during masturbation, foreplay and intercourse.
Clitoral hood piercing
A protome is a type of adornment that takes the form of the head and upper torso of either a human or an animal.
Protome
The alfiz is an architectural adornment, consisting of a moulding, usually a rectangular panel, which encloses the outward side of an arch.
Alfiz

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the adōrnō family

adorn adornment

adornment — used about once every 41,009 pages · #14,080 · point at the bar for the others

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