Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Embellish |
EmbellishVerb1. Add details to. 2. Be beautiful to look at; "Flowers adorned the tables everywhere". 3. Make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.; "Decorate the room for the party"; "beautify yourself for the special day". 4. Make more beautiful. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "embellish" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references) |
Note: Embellish \Em*bel"lish\, transitive verb. [imperative past participle Embellished; present participle verb or noun Embellishing.]. (references) |
Synonyms: EmbellishSynonyms: adorn (v), aggrandise (v), aggrandize (v), beautify (v), blow up (v), deck (v), decorate (v), dramatise (v), dramatize (v), embroider (v), grace (v), lard (v), ornament (v), pad (v), prettify (v). (additional references) |
| Antonym: uglify (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Ornament | Verb: ornament, embellish, enrich, decorate, adorn, bead, beautify, adonize. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Embellish |
| English words defined with "embellish": Betrim ♦ Embellishing ♦ Inlace ♦ landscape ♦ Overflourish ♦ smock ♦ To dress a ship, To set off, To set out. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "embellish": FLY ♦ GOLF-CLUB ASSEMBLER. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | FLY-:SPECK:, n. The prototype of punctuation. It is observed by Garvinus that the systems of punctuation in use by the various literary nations depended originally upon the social habits and general diet of the flies infesting the several countries. These creatures, which have always been distinguished for a neighborly and companionable familiarity with authors, liberally or niggardly embellish the manuscripts in process of growth under the pen, according to their bodily habit, bringing out the sense of the work by a species of interpretation superior to, and independent of, the writer's powers. The "old masters" of literature -- that is to say, the early writers whose work is so esteemed by later scribes and critics in the same language -- never punctuated at all, but worked right along free-handed, without that abruption of the thought which comes from the use of points. (We observe the same thing in children to-day, whose usage in this particular is a striking and beautiful instance of the law that the infancy of individuals reproduces the methods and stages of development characterizing the infancy of races.) In the work of these primitive scribes all the punctuation is found, by the modern investigator with his optical instruments and chemical tests, to have been inserted by the writers' ingenious and serviceable collaborator, the common house-fly -- Musca maledicta. In transcribing these ancient MSS, for the purpose of either making the work their own or preserving what they naturally regard as divine revelations, later writers reverently and accurately copy whatever marks they find upon the papyrus or parchment, to the unspeakable enhancement of the lucidity of the thought and value of the work. Writers contemporary with the copyists naturally avail themselves of the obvious advantages of these marks in their own work, and with such assistance as the flies of their own household may be willing to grant, frequently rival and sometimes surpass the older compositions, in respect at least of punctuation, which is no small glory. Fully to understand the important services that flies perform to literature it is only necessary to lay a page of some popular novelist alongside a saucer of cream-and-molasses in a sunny room and observe "how the wit brightens and the style refines" in accurate proportion to the duration of exposure. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Embellish" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 67.44% of the time. "Embellish" is used about 43 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 67.44% | 29 | 64,444 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 32.56% | 14 | 93,893 |
| Total | 100.00% | 43 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "embellish": over-embellish. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
embellish | 26 |
embellish it | 6 |
embellish this | 4 |
embellish sf.com | 2 |
embellish this.com | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "embellish"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | e bëj të bukur, zbukuroj (adorn, beautify, bedeck, bedizen, bespangle, bespread, color, colour, deck, decorate, dress, embroider, festoon, flatter, Flavor, flavour, garnish, gild the pill, glorify, inlay, intersperse, landscape, ornament, pink, prettify, set with, smarten up, stud, touch up, trap, trick out, trim, water down), stolis (adorn, array, bedizen, deck, decorate, dress, enchase, ornament, prank, tire, trap, trick up, trim). (various references) | |
Arabic | نمق (adore, lard, retouch), زخرف (adorn, bedeck, deck, decorate, do, embellishment, emboss, embroider, enrich, flourish, garnish, grace, illuminate, illustrate, lard, ornament, ornamentation, string, trace, trick, trick out, trick up, trim), جمل (beautify, bedeck, camel, conclude, enhance, finalize, garnish, improve, ornament, outline, precis, prettify, pretty, refine, smarten, sum up, summarize, totalize, varnish). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | украсявам (adorn, array, color, colour, deck, decorate, dress, embroider, enchase, enrich, flatter, garnish, glorify, grace, lard, ornament, prank, set, titivate, trim), разкрасявам (beautify, dress up, embroider, furbish, gild, ornament, prettify, pretty). (various references) | |
Chinese | 修 (to build, to cultivate, to decorate, to embellish, to repair, to study, to write). (various references) | |
Czech | zkrášlit (beautify, enhance), přikrášlit (wangle), ozdobit (adorn, decorate, garnish, trim). (various references) | |
Dutch | verfraaien, opwerken, flatteren. (various references) | |
Esperanto | plibeligi. (various references) | |
Farsi | پیراستن (Decorate, Dress, Trim), زینت دادن (Adorn, Trim), زیباکردن (Adorn, Beautify, Groom), ارایش کردن (Attire, Manicure), ارایش دادن (Able, Adorn, Beautify, Decorate, Garnish, Lard, Plume). (various references) | |
Finnish | värittää (colour), sievistellä (be affected), kaunisstaa (adorn, beautify). (various references) | |
French | embellir. (various references) | |
German | verschönern (beautify, brighten up, improve, prettify, refurbish, to embellish). (various references) | |
Greek | καλλωπίζω (adorn, beautify, spruce up), στολίζω (adorn, array, attire, beautify, bespangle, caparison, deck, decorate, doll, doll up, garnish, ornament, perk, prank, prim, primp, prink, titivate, tog, trim), γαρνίρω, εξωραϊζω, εξωραΰζω (beautify, prettify), λουσάρω (adorn). (various references) | |
Hebrew | ליפות (beautify, prettify, smarten), לפאר (adorn, beautify, glorify, ornament), לעטר (crown, decorate, illuminate, illustrate, ornament, trim), ל"וסיף ופך (add a personal touch, gild the lily, tinge), לצעצע (adorn, ornament). (various references) | |
Hungarian | felékesít (to adorn, to bedeck, to grace), díszít (adorn, attire, deck, decorate, enrich, garnish, ornament, ornate, to adorn, to braid, to deck, to decorate, to embellish, to emblazon, to embroider, to festoon, to garnish, to gimp, to grace, to inlay, to instar, to ornament, to primp, to set out, to spangle, to stud, to vandyke). (various references) | |
Indonesian | menghiasi (adorn, emblazon, illustrate), menghias (adorn, decorate, ornament), memperbaguskan (touch up), membaguskan (beautify). (various references) | |
Italian | abbellire (adorn, beautify, grace, posh up, prettify, prink, smarten). (various references) | |
Manx | skeoghy, jesheenaghey (adorn, adornment, bedeck, decorate, dress, emblazon, garnish, painting, painting trade, prank, preen, renovation, set, titivate), cur daah er (colour, paint). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | embellishay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | enfeitar (apparel, bejewel, caparison, deck, frill, garnish, groom, ornament, perk, prank, prettify, primp, set out, sugar-coat, titivate, tog oneself up), embelezar (accoutre, aggrandize, beautify, deck, dress, embroider, flatter, garnish, glorify, grace, ornament, perk, prettify, sugar-coat), tornarmaisbelo. (various references) | |
Romanian | înfrumuseţa (adorn, beautify, blazon, color, colour, decorate, flatter, gild, glorify, grace, lace, ornament, paint, set). (various references) | |
Russian | украшать (adorn, beautify, bedeck, deck, decorate, decorating, garnish, gild, ornament, prettify, set off). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | ulepšati (beautify). (various references) | |
Spanish | embellecer (beautify, glamorize, glamourize, grace, improve, pink out, prettify). (various references) | |
Swedish | försköna (adorn, beautify, prettify). (various references) | |
Thai | ประ"ับ (enrich, garnish, ornament). (various references) | |
Turkish | süslemek (adorn, array, beautify, bedeck, bedight, caparison, crown, damask, deck out, decorate, dike, dizen, doll out, doll up, dress, dress up, embroider, enamel, enrich, fancy up, fig out, figure, flourish, garnish, gild, gird, grace, interlard, lace, lard, ornament, prank, prank out, prank up, rig, scrimshaw, set, smarten, tart up, tire, titivate, trick out, trick up, trig out, trig up, trim, zing up, zip, zip up), renk katmak (adorn, color, colour, relieve), güzelleştirmek (adorn, beautify, do up, face-lift, gild, perk up, prettify, pretty up), abartmak (aggrandize, balloon, carry things too far, carry to excess, color, colour, dramatize, draw the longbow, drow the long bow, embroider, enhance, exaggerate, fudge, glorify, heighten, lay it on, lay it on thickly, lay it on with a trowel, magnify, overcharge, overdo, overstate, pile it on, pile on the agony, put it on, put it on thick, put on, shoot off one's mouth, slobber over, stretch). (various references) | |
Turkmen | nagyюlamak (adorn, decorate). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | наділяти красою, прикрашати (adorn, apparel, beautify, bedeck, bespread, brighten, caparison, color, colour, deck, decorate, dress, dress out, embroider, flatter, garnish, gloss over, grace, needle, ornament, ornamentalize, prettify, set forth, smug, sugar coat, trim, trim up, varnish), прибріхувати. (various references) | |
Welsh | teca/u (adorn, beautify), harddu (adorn, beautify). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | adornare, adornatus, adorno, decoro, exorna, exornat, inlustra, inlustrabis, inlustrabo, inlustratione, inlustrem, inlustret. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "embellish": embellished, embellisher, embellishers, embellishes, embellishing, embellishment, embellishments. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "embellish": overembellish. (additional references) | |
Words containing "embellish": overembellished, overembellishes, overembellishing, overembellishment, overembellishments, unembellished. (additional references) | |
| |
"Embellish" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: embelish, emblelish, embllish, emellish, imbellish, megellus, melluish. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "embellish" (pronounced embe"lish) |
| 4 | -e" l i sh | hellish, relish. |
| 3 | -l i sh | accomplish, demolish, devilish, establish, ghoulish, girlish, polish, publish, purplish, reestablish, smallish, stylish, ticklish. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-e-e-h-i-l-l-m-s" | |
-1 letter: shlemiel. | |
-2 letters: bellies, beslime, besmile, blemish. | |
-3 letters: belies, belles, elemis, libels, milles. | |
-4 letters: belie, belle, bells, biles, bills, elemi, hebes, heels, heils, hells, helms, hemes, hills, libel, limbs, limes, lisle, mells, miles, mille, mills, selle, shell, shiel, shill, slime, smell, smile. | |
-5 letters: bees, bell, bels, bile, bill, bise, eels, elhi, ells, elms, else, emes, hebe. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-e-e-h-i-l-l-m-s" | |
+2 letters: embellished, embellisher, embellishes. | |
+3 letters: blithesomely, embellishers, embellishing. | |
+4 letters: embellishment, overembellish, unembellished. | |
+5 letters: embellishments. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
