embellish

verb

em·​bel·​lish im-ˈbe-lish 

embellished; embellishing; embellishes

transitive verb

1

: to make beautiful with ornamentation : decorate

a book embellished with illustrations

2

: to heighten the attractiveness of by adding decorative or fanciful details : enhance

embellished our account of the trip

embellisher noun

Did you know?

Embellish is related to the French word for "beautiful," bel, and, traditionally, it has been used to imply beautifying an object with the addition of things unessential. That's still true; however, it is equally appealing as an adjective for making statements or stories sound more entertaining.

Synonyms

• color
• elaborate (on)
• embroider
• exaggerate
• hyperbolize
• magnify
• pad
• stretch

Choose the Right Synonym for embellish

adorn, decorate, ornament, embellish, beautify, deck, garnish mean to enhance the appearance of something by adding something unessential.

adorn implies an enhancing by something beautiful in itself.

a diamond necklace adorned her neck

decorate suggests relieving plainness or monotony by adding beauty of color or design.

decorate a birthday cake

ornament and embellish imply the adding of something extraneous, ornament stressing the heightening or setting off of the original

a white house ornamented with green shutters

, embellish often stressing the adding of superfluous or adventitious ornament.

embellish a page with floral borders

beautify adds to embellish a suggestion of counterbalancing plainness or ugliness.

will beautify the grounds with flower beds

deck implies the addition of something that contributes to gaiety, splendor, or showiness.

a house all decked out for Christmas

garnish suggests decorating with a small final touch and is used especially in referring to the serving of food.

an entrée garnished with parsley

Examples of embellish in a Sentence

a book embellished with colorful illustrations

He embellished his speech with a few quotations.

Recent Examples on the Web

Days before Supergiant released the early access version of Hades II, a cluster of employees worked in its small studio space, which has an open floor design embellished with orange and crimson accents reminiscent of the original game’s color palette. —Brian X. Chen, New York Times, 13 May 2024

The cap was also embellished with pearls, wax orange blossoms and floral lace motifs, per the Philadelphia Museum of Art. —Ariana Quihuiz, Peoplemag, 12 May 2024

Photo : Dimitrios Kambouris for Getty Images Penelope Cruz in Chanel The actress and longtime brand ambassador walked the carpet in head to toe Chanel, wearing a custom haute couture bustier gown embellished with eight different types of French floral laces. —Shannon Adducci, Robb Report, 7 May 2024

The gilded garlands were embellished with 60,500 crystals and made over 1,600 hours by five craftspeople. —Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 7 May 2024

But the Latin superstar took a break from the whirlwind of touring, walked the red carpet at the Met Gala for the first time wearing prosthetic elf ears and a sheer Marc Jacobs number embellished with large crystals from head to toe. —Moises Mendez Ii, TIME, 6 May 2024

Each team in the competition made a cheesecake for dessert, but could embellish in their own way. —Steve Metsch, Chicago Tribune, 4 May 2024

The dress was further embellished with strings punctuated with pearlescent beads that hung off of the bodice. —Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 3 May 2024

Like a story over campfire, embellished without fact-checking so many times that there’s an astonishingly large segment of the basketball-watching world seems to believe that Doncic simply owns the Clippers and that Dallas won one of these past two meetings, if not both. —Mirjam Swanson, Orange County Register, 19 Apr. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Anglo-French embeliss-, stem of embelir, from en- + bel beautiful — more at beauty

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

embellish

verb

em·​bel·​lish im-ˈbel-ish 

: to make beautiful with ornamentation : decorate

a book embellished with pictures

embellishment

-mənt

noun