Decorated

How to spell decorated

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce decorated

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does decorated mean?

1. verbAdorned or made more attractive by adding ornaments, colour, or finishing touches (past tense of decorate).
2. adjectiveHaving been awarded a medal or official honour for bravery or service.

Decorated in a sentence

• verb

  They decorated the entire hall with ribbons before the wedding reception.

• adjective

  The decorated veteran spoke quietly about his years of service.

• verb

  Last weekend we decorated the spare bedroom in a soft grey.

• adjective

  She is the most highly decorated officer in the regiment.

Where does decorated come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb decorare, meaning 'to adorn' or 'to beautify', which was built on the noun decus, meaning 'ornament', 'grace', or 'honour'. The same decus root also gave us 'decorous' and 'decorum', words about behaving with fitting grace, so the family always carried a sense of seemliness as well as ornament. English took 'decorate' from this Latin source in the sixteenth century, and 'decorated' is simply its past tense and past participle. Over time the word split into two living strands: the everyday one about adorning a room or cake, and a formal one about being given a medal, since an honour was literally an 'ornament' pinned on a soldier. The spelling trap is the quiet middle syllable, an unstressed 'o' (dec-O-rated) that the ear barely registers, which is why writers sometimes drop or swap it.

How the word is built

• decor- (from Latin decorare, to adorn, from decus 'ornament, honour')
• -ate (verb suffix)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)