ornamental

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English ornament

Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.?

Proto-Italic *-ālis

Latin -ālisbor.

Old French -albor.

▲

Latin -ālis

Old French -elbor.

▲

Latin -ālisbor.

Middle English -al

English -al

English ornamental

From ornament + -al.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɔː.nəˈmɛn.təl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɔɹ.nəˈmɛn.təl/

Adjective

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.

Derived terms

• nonornamental
• ornamental hermit
• ornamentalism
• ornamentalist
• ornamentality
• ornamentalize
• ornamentalness
• unornamental

Related terms

• ornamentation
• ornamentally

Translations

serving to ornament

• Bulgarian: декоративен (bg) (dekorativen)
• Catalan: ornamental (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 裝飾性的 / 装饰性的 (zhuāngshìxìng de), 觀賞性的 / 观赏性的 (guānshǎngxìng de), 觀賞的 / 观赏的 (guānshǎng de)

• Czech: ornamentální
• Dutch: ornamenteel (nl)
• Finnish: koristeellinen (fi)
• French: ornemental (fr)
• Friulian: ornamentâl
• Galician: ornamental (gl)
• German: Zier-, dekorativ (de)
• Hungarian: díszes (hu), ékes (hu)
• Indonesian: ornamental (id)
• Irish: ornáideach, gréagáin
• Italian: ornamentale (it)
• Old English: gefrætwod, glengful
• Polish: ozdobny (pl)
• Portuguese: ornamental (pt)
• Romanian: ornamental (ro)
• Spanish: ornamental (es)

bred for aesthetic or decorative purposes

• Bulgarian: декоративен (bg) (dekorativen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 裝飾性的 / 装饰性的 (zhuāngshìxìng de), 觀賞性的 / 观赏性的 (guānshǎngxìng de), 觀賞的 / 观赏的 (guānshǎng de)

• Dutch: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: koriste-, koristeellinen (fi)
• Indonesian: ornamental (id)

Noun

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.

Translations

plant serving to ornament

• Bulgarian: декорация (bg) f (dekoracija)
• Catalan: ornamental (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 觀賞植物 / 观赏植物 (guānshǎng zhíwù)

• Czech: okrasná rostlina f
• Dutch: sier-, sierplant (nl) f
• Finnish: koristeellinen (fi)
• French: ornemental (fr) m, ornementale (fr) f
• Galician: ornamental (gl)
• German: Zierpflanze (de) f
• Greek: διακοσμητικό (el) m or n (diakosmitikó), διακοσμητική (el) f (diakosmitikí)
• Ido: ornementala
• Italian: ornamentale (it) m or f
• Japanese: 装飾用
• Malay: tanaman hiasan (ms)
• Russian: орнаментальная (ru) (ornamentalʹnaja)

Catalan

Etymology

From ornament +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

ornamental m or f (masculine and feminine plural ornamentals)

1. ornamental

Further reading

• “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, 2026
• “ornamental” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “ornamental”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Galician

Etymology

From ornamento +‎ -al.

Adjective

ornamental m or f (plural ornamentais)

1. ornamental

Further reading

• “ornamental”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026

Indonesian

Etymology

Internationalism

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ornaˈmɛntal/ [or.naˈmen̪.t̪al]
• Rhymes: -ɛntal
• Syllabification: or‧na‧men‧tal

Adjective

ornamental (comparative lebih ornamental, superlative paling ornamental)

1. ornamental

Related terms

• ornamen

Further reading

• “ornamental”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Portuguese

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /oʁ.na.mẽˈtaw/ [oɦ.na.mẽˈtaʊ̯]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /oʁ.na.mẽˈtaw/ [oɦ.na.mẽˈtaʊ̯]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /oɾ.na.mẽˈtaw/ [oɾ.na.mẽˈtaʊ̯]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /oʁ.na.mẽˈtaw/ [oʁ.na.mẽˈtaʊ̯]
  • (Caipira) IPA^(key): /oɻ.na.mẽˈtaw/ [oɻ.na.mẽˈtaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɔɾ.nɐ.mẽˈtal/ [ɔɾ.nɐ.mẽˈtaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɔɾ.nɐ.mẽˈtal/ [ɔɾ.nɐ.mẽˈtaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɔɾ.nɐ.mẽˈta.li/

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

Adjective

ornamental m or f (plural ornamentais)

1. ornamental

Derived terms

• ornamentalmente

Further reading

• “ornamental”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “ornamental”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

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

Adjective

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

1. ornamental

Declension

Declension of ornamental

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	ornamental		ornamentală	ornamentali	ornamentale
	definite	ornamentalul		ornamentala	ornamentalii	ornamentalele
genitive- dative	indefinite	ornamental		ornamentale	ornamentali	ornamentale
	definite	ornamentalului		ornamentalei	ornamentalilor	ornamentalelor

Spanish

Etymology

From ornamento +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

ornamental m or f (masculine and feminine plural ornamentales)

1. ornamental

Derived terms

• ornamentalmente

Related terms

• ornamentación
• ornamentar

Further reading

• “ornamental”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Swedish

Adjective

ornamental (not comparable)

1. ornamental

Declension

Inflection of ornamental

Indefinite	positive	comparative	superlative1
common singular	ornamental	—	—
neuter singular	ornamentalt	—	—
plural	ornamentala	—	—
masculine plural2	ornamentale	—	—
Definite	positive	comparative	superlative
masculine singular3	ornamentale	—	—
all	ornamentala	—	—

¹ The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
² Dated or archaic.
³ Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

Related terms

• ornament
• ornamentera
• ornamentik

References

• “ornamental”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “ornamental”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “ornamental”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)