embellish
To add extra details or decoration to make something fancier.
embellish in a sentence
- Rosa embellished her plain notebook with stickers, ribbons and glitter stars.
- The baker likes to embellish each birthday cake with swirls of icing and tiny sugar stars.
Try an 11+ style question
Verbal reasoning papers often ask about a word like this.
Which word is closest in meaning to embellish?
- Adecorate
- Breduce
- Csimplify
- Dstrip
Show the answer
A: decorate. The other three mean the opposite of embellish.
Which word is most nearly opposite in meaning to embellish?
- Aadorn
- Bdecorate
- Cstrip
- Dbeautify
Show the answer
C: strip. The other three mean nearly the same as embellish.
Words that mean something similar
decorate, adorn, beautify
Words that mean the opposite
strip, simplify, reduce
Careful: embellish is not exaggerate
Exaggerate makes things bigger than they were. Embellish adds things that were not there. Read why children mix them up.
More words about appearance & looks
- erect: Standing up straight.
- exquisite: Extremely beautiful and finely made.
- feeble: Weak and without strength.
- flamboyant: Bold, colourful and eye-catching, in a way that makes people notice you.
- flawless: Perfect, with no mistakes or faults.
- flimsy: Thin, weak and easily broken.
- fragile: Easily broken or damaged.
- frail: Weak and delicate, often because of age or illness.
More words to explore
Sitting the 11+ in Kent, Medway or Buckinghamshire?
Plain-English guides to each test, from the councils’ own pages: Kent Test · Medway Test · Bucks Secondary Transfer Test