Mural
/ˈmjʊɹəl/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA large painting, usually drawn on a wall.
adjOf or relating to a wall; on, or in, or against a wall.
Sentence Examples
Is that a mural of the building it's painted on?
Yanni was painting a mural in Algiers.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The community center's ____ featured scenes from local history, painted by volunteers.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The local artist painted a beautiful and very colorful ____ on the side of the old brick building, depicting several scenes from the city's long history.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from French mural, from Latin muralis, from murus (“wall”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
""There was an underpass beside the station which was a difficult area for anti-social behaviour. Again, we got artists involved, and schools and the community to put murals in it, and now the community feels like it's theirs. For a small urban station, it has a really nice modern feel about it.""
— 2026 March 18, Chris Conway talks to Andy Comfort, “The RAIL Interview”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 34:
"Disburd’nd Heav’n rejoic’d, and soon repaird / Her mural breach, returning whence it rowld."
— 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 878–879:
"[Y]et in the Nectarine and like delicate Mural-fruit, the later your Pruning, the better, [...]"
— 1669, John Evelyn, “Kalendarium Hortense: OrThe Gard’ners Almanac; […] [February.]”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], 3rd edition, London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, →OCLC, page 10:
"Soon the swift horses drew this fair god and goddess nigh the wooded hills, whose distant blue, now changed into a variously-shaded green, stood before them like old Babylonian walls, overgrown with verdure; while here and there, at regular intervals, the scattered peaks seemed mural towers; […]"
— 1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities:
"Its walls were devoutly muraled by artists from the John Reed Club, a Communist-controlled cultural organization."
— 2014, Whittaker Chambers, Witness:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The community center's ____ featured scenes from local history, painted by volunteers.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The local artist painted a beautiful and very colorful ____ on the side of the old brick building, depicting several scenes from the city's long history.