ornamental

From ornament +‎ -al.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɔːnəˈmɛntl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɔɹnəˈmɛntl/

ornamental (comparative more ornamental, superlative most ornamental)

1. Serving as an ornament; having no purpose other than to make more beautiful.

   Synonyms: beautifying, embellishing, decorative

   Some think it most ornamental to wear their bracelets on their wrists; others, about their ankles.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter I, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV:

     We shall leave to the reader to determine with what judgment we have chosen the several occasions for inserting those ornamental parts of our work.

   • 1968, Carl Ruhen, The Key Club, Sydney: Scripts, page 20:

     There were ornamental ponds and shrubs clipped into animal shapes, painted concrete gnomes sitting on mushrooms, pink flamingos standing on one leg[.]

2. (of a plant, fish, etc.) Bred for aesthetic or decorative purposes.

   Those pine trees on the lawn are the fastest-growing ornamentals we could find.

• ornamentation
• ornamentally

ornamental (plural ornamentals)

1. An ornamental plant.
   • 1991 October 10, Jackson Granholm, “In praise of the tumbleweed”, in News Chronicle, Thousand Oaks, Calif., page B-7, column 3:

     The tumbleweed is a gracious gift from the Russians, having been imported as a favored ornamental from the steppes of central Asia.

From ornament +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ur.nə.mənˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [or.nə.mənˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [oɾ.na.menˈtal]
• Rhymes: -al

ornamental m or f (masculine and feminine plural ornamentals)

1. ornamental

• “ornamental”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “ornamental”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “ornamental” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “ornamental” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From ornamento +‎ -al.

ornamental m or f (plural ornamentais)

1. ornamental

• “ornamental”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

From ornamento (“ornament”) +‎ -al (“of or relating to”).

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: or‧na‧men‧tal

ornamental m or f (plural ornamentais)

1. ornamental

• ornamentalmente

• “ornamental”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Borrowed from French ornemental. By surface analysis, ornament +‎ -al.

ornamental m or n (feminine singular ornamentală, masculine plural ornamentali, feminine and neuter plural ornamentale)

1. ornamental

From ornamento +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): /oɾnamenˈtal/ [oɾ.na.mẽn̪ˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: or‧na‧men‧tal

ornamental m or f (masculine and feminine plural ornamentales)

1. ornamental

• “ornamental”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

ornamental (not comparable)

1. ornamental

• ornament
• ornamentera
• ornamentik

• ornamental in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• ornamental in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• ornamental in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)