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decoration

noun

Simple meaning

Something added to make a place or object look nicer.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dehkerayshuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dɛkɚˈeɪʃən

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The act of adorning, embellishing, or honoring; ornamentation.

  2. Any item that adorns, enriches, or beautifies; something added by way of embellishment or ornamentation.

  3. Specifically, any mark of honor to be worn upon the person, as a medal, cross, or ribbon of an order of knighthood, bestowed for services in war, great achievements in literature, art, etc.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
General and technical use

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The act of adorning, embellishing, or honoring; ornamentation.

Used this way, decoration is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use decoration

  • “The room needed a little more decoration to feel cozy.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

interior decorationdecoration daypainted decorationwall decorationsurface decorationarchitectural decorationhome decorationmural decoration

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • decoration daynounCompound term

    Legal holiday in the United States, last Monday in May.

  • interior decorationnounCompound term

    Decoration consisting of the layout and furnishings of a livable interior.

  • set decorationnounCompound term

    A decoration used as part of the set of a theatrical or movie production.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • decornounRelated term

    Decoration consisting of the layout and furnishings of a livable interior.

  • decoratornounRelated term

    A person who specializes in interior decoration.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: adorning or embellishing or or honoring

ornament

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.