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cornice

UK/ˈkɔːnɪs/US/ˈkoɹnɪs/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,670 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: cornices

A cornice is the decorative moulding where wall meets ceiling. Original cornice, restore the cornice, a plaster cornice.

It hides the join and catches the light, which is why a room with one looks finished and a room without one looks bare. In mountains a cornice is an overhanging lip of wind-blown snow, and standing on one is how people fall.

Unknown · Public domain

Definitions of cornice

  1. 1nouncorniceThe decorative moulding where wall meets ceiling.C1

    “The painter carefully cleaned the plaster cornice at the top of the living-room walls.”

cornice is a moulding.

Where it comes from

Italian cornice names the moulding, perhaps from Latin coronis, a curved flourish.

  1. Latin

    cornīx — crow

  2. Italian

    cornice

  3. Middle French

    corniche

  4. English, today

    cornice

From Middle French corniche or Italian cornice, possibly from either (1) Latin cornīx (“crow”) or (2) Latin coronis (“curved line, flourish in writing”), from Ancient Greek κορωνίς. See also corniche.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Tools & DIY

Practise this word

cornice in the wild

  • Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon the architrave ("main beam") and is capped by the moldings of the cornice.

    Frieze

  • In interiors, the frieze of a room is the section of wall above the picture rail and under the crown moldings or cornice.

    Frieze

  • The cornice continues round the top of a pediment, as well as below it; the rising sides are often called the "raking cornice".

    Pediment

  • In architecture, a cornice (from Italian cornice 'ledge') is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element.

    Cornice

  • Examples include the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a pedestal, or along the top of an interior wall.

    Cornice

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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.