garnish
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Decorate, as with parsley or other ornamental foods.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
gahrnishSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡɑɹnɪʃ
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
Decorate (food), as with parsley or other ornamental foods
To decorate with ornaments; to adorn; to embellish.
cooking
To ornament with something placed around it.
law
To warn by garnishment; to give notice to.
noun
A set of dishes, often pewter, containing a dozen pieces of several types.
Pewter vessels in general.
Something (such as parsley) added to a dish for flavor or decoration
Something added for embellishment.
Clothes; garments, especially when showy or decorative.
usslang
Cash.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Decorate (food), as with parsley or other ornamental foods
Used this way, garnish 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
- No strong connotation
- 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 garnish
- “His employer garnished his wages in order to pay his debt.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A court order to an employer to withhold all or part of an employee's wages and to send the money to the court or to the person who won a lawsuit against the employee.
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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.