Embroidered

How to spell embroidered

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce embroidered

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does embroidered mean?

1. verbDecorated cloth with patterns sewn in thread, in the past tense.
2. adjectiveDecorated with patterns sewn in thread.
3. verbAdded invented or exaggerated details to a story or account, in the past tense.

Embroidered in a sentence

• verb

  Her grandmother embroidered tiny flowers along the hem of the apron.

• adjective

  The museum displayed an embroidered silk robe from the imperial court.

• verb

  He embroidered the account of his journey until it sounded like an epic.

• verb

  The tailor embroidered the company logo onto every uniform shirt.

• adjective

  A heavily embroidered cushion sat on the antique chair.

• verb

  The witness clearly embroidered the facts to make the incident seem worse.

Where does embroidered come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Old French embroder, also spelled embrouder, which meant to ornament cloth with raised needlework. It was built from the prefix en- meaning 'in' or 'onto' and the verb broder or brosder, 'to do decorative stitching'; that root is widely thought to come from a Germanic word for an edge, point, or bristle, since early embroidery raised thread into ridges and points on the fabric. English took the verb in during the 1300s, and the b in the middle, never sounded in speech, is the survival that makes the spelling tricky. Over time the word gained a figurative sense, 'to add invented colourful details to a story', exactly as one adds decorative thread to plain cloth. The same brod root lies behind the word 'braid' in some accounts, which is why the cluster of vowels in the middle so easily gets scrambled.

How the word is built

• em- (in, onto)
• broid (raised needlework, from Old French brosder)
• -er (frequentative)
• -ed (past tense/participle)