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Embellish Make Verb Ornament Beautiful Addition Decorative Fanciful

Embellish is a verb meaning to make beautiful with ornamentation or enhance by adding details. It can also be used to include untrue details to make a story more appealing.

Embellish es un verbo que significa embellecer con ornamentación o mejorar añadiendo detalles. También puede usarse para incluir detalles falsos para hacer una historia más atractiva.

Word embellish
Date August 28, 2016
Type verb
Syllables im-BELL-ish
Etymology Like its synonyms adorn, ornament, and garnish, embellish means to make something beautiful by the addition of a decorative or fanciful feature. Traditionally, the word is used specifically to stress the addition of superfluous or adventitious ornament, as in "The printer embellished the page with a floral border." Embellish differs from its synonyms, however, in that it is sometimes used in a euphemistic way to refer to the inclusion of details that are not necessarily true to make a story sound more appealing. The word derives via Middle English from the Anglo-French verb embelir, from en- and bel ("beautiful").
Examples Kevin later admitted that he may have embellished the truth about the size of the dog that chased him out of the yard.

"On Snapchat, where users embellish their selfies with emoji, crayon scribbles, and elaborate 'lenses' that cover their faces with virtual masks, marketers like McDonalds are seizing the opportunity to write their messages across people’s faces." — Amanda Hess, The New York Times, 20 June 2016
Definition 1 : to make beautiful with ornamentation : decorate
2 : to heighten the attractiveness of by adding decorative or fanciful details : enhance

Tags: wordoftheday::verb

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