Synonyms for embellish
Definitions
- v. 1
To make more beautiful and attractive by adding ornamentation; to decorate.
The old book cover was embellished with golden letters
- v. 2
To enhance by adding something not strictly integral or necessary.
- v. 3
To make something sound or look better or more acceptable than it is in reality; to distort, embroider, or even misrepresent or lie.
to embellish a story, the truth
Related words
- Word family
- embellisher embellishment
Forms
- Past participle
- embellished
e.g. embellished → decorated, adorned, ornamented, graced…
Choose the right word
To embellish is to brighten and enliven by adding something that is not necessarily or very closely connected with that to which it is added; to illustrate is to add something so far like in kind as to cast a side-light upon the principal matter.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- trim Some people stay trim even without going to a gym.
- decorate Tom helped his mother decorate the Christmas tree.
- ornament Friends who pay a visit are an ornament to the home.
- adorn Man adorns the place, the place doesn't adorn the man.
- embroider I don't embroider their handkerchiefs.
By length
- 3 letters
- pad1, dub1
- 4 letters
- deck1, trim1, lard1
- 5 letters
- dress1, grace1, array2, adorn2
- 6 letters
- enrich2, bedeck2
- 7 letters
- garnish2, varnish2, bedizen3, fancify
- 8 letters
- decorate3, ornament3, beautify3, bedazzle, emblazon3, prettify
- 9 letters
- dramatize3, embroider3, dramatise
- 10 letters
- illustrate3, aggrandize3, aggrandise
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (array2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- embellir
- Italiano
- abbellire
- Español
- embellecer
- Deutsch
- verschönern
- Català
- embellir