baroque

CEFRB2

/bæˈɹɒk/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Related to a highly detailed style of art, music, or buildings.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    A period in Western architecture, art, and music from c. 1600–1760 CE, known for its abundance of drama, rich color, and extensive ornamentation.

Examples

  • I have no trouble sight-singing baroque music.

  • Note the fine early Baroque altar inside the chapel.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2

Also pronounced

  • /bəˈɹoʊk/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. The chess variant invented in 1962 by mathematician Robert Abbott, or any of its descendants, where pieces move alike, but have differing methods of capture.

  2. Ornate, intricate, decorated, laden with detail.

  3. Complex and beautiful, despite an outward irregularity.

More examples

In context

  • She prefers quiet music - the baroque, for example.

  • baroque bookkeeping in pursuit of tax dodges

  • grotesquely baroque bureaucratic hassles

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The museum's new exhibit features elaborate blank sculptures from seventeenth-century Italy.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

Via French (which originally meant a pearl of irregular shape) from Portuguese barroco (“irregular pearl”); related to Spanish barrueco and Italian barocco and Sicilian baroccu, of uncertain ultimate origin, but possibly from Latin verruca (“wart”), or possibly from the technical construction of scholastic logic, Baroco.