embellish
verb
Simple meaning
Make more attractive by adding ornament.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihmbehlishSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪmˈbɛlɪʃ
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.
To make more beautiful and attractive by adding ornamentation; to decorate.
To make something sound or look better or more acceptable than it is in reality; to distort, embroider, or even misrepresent or lie.
Be beautiful to look at
by extension
To enhance by adding something not strictly integral or necessary.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.
Used this way, embellish is a reasonably familiar word with a mildly favourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.