Ornament Meaning
/ˈɔː(ɹ)nəmənt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounAn element of decoration; that which embellishes or adorns.
nounAn element of decoration; that which embellishes or adorns., Christmas ornament: a Christmas tree decoration.
Sentence Examples
It is merely an ornament.
I haven't broken a Christmas ornament in years.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
She placed a shiny ____ on the Christmas tree to make it festive.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She carefully placed each glass ____ on the Christmas tree, making sure none would fall.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English ornament, from Old French ornement, from Latin ornamentum (“equipment, apparatus, furniture, trappings, adornment, embellishment”), from ornāre (“to equip, adorn”). The verb is derived from the noun.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Dust are our frames; and, gilded dust, our pride / Looks only for a moment whole and sound; / Like that long-buried body of the king / Found lying with his urns and ornaments, / Which at a touch of light, an air of heaven, / Slipt into ashes and was found no more."
— 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 51:
"I'm a bit short on brain myself; the old bean would appear to have been constructed more for ornament than for use."
— 1919, P. G. Wodehouse, My Man Jeeves:
"Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story."
— 2012 March 26, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 19 Feb 2013, page 106:
"After this, perhaps, the next most imposing structure in Liverpool is the railway station; it is built of stone, richly ornamented with thirty-six columns of the Corinthian order."
— 1958 October 26, “Liverpool to London in 1842”, in Railway Magazine, page 679:
"Not a scene goes by that hasn't been ornamented with a split screen, a freeze frame, a caption, a voice-over, a switch between monochrome and colour, or a change of the aspect radio^([sic – meaning ratio])."
— 2021 July 12, Nicholas Barber, “The French Dispatch: Four stars for Wes Anderson's latest”, in BBC:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She placed a shiny ____ on the Christmas tree to make it festive.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She carefully placed each glass ____ on the Christmas tree, making sure none would fall.