Garland

How to spell garland

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce garland

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does garland mean?

1. nounA wreath or rope of flowers, leaves, or other material, worn or hung as a decoration.
2. verbTo decorate or adorn something with a wreath or loop of flowers and leaves.

Garland in a sentence

• noun

  A fresh garland of marigolds hung above the doorway for the festival.

• verb

  Volunteers planned to garland the balcony with fresh blooms before the wedding.

• noun

  She wove a garland from ivy and dried roses to drape across the mantelpiece.

• verb

  They would garland the temple pillars with strings of jasmine each morning.

Where does garland come from?

Language of origin: French

Garland came into English in the early 1300s from the Old French garlande, meaning a wreath or chaplet of flowers worn on the head. The Old French form is thought to derive from a Frankish (Germanic) root related to winding or twisting strands together, fitting for an object made by weaving flowers, leaves, or ribbons into a ring. From its first use for a circlet of blossoms, the sense broadened to any festive looping decoration hung in celebration, and figuratively to a 'crown' of honour given to a victor or a poet. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable for seven hundred years, and the trap for modern writers is purely sound: the unstressed second syllable reduces to a schwa, so the 'lan' is easy to spell as 'len' or 'lin'. Remembering the related idea of a winding 'land' of flowers helps anchor the -land ending.

How the word is built

• garland (a single unit borrowed whole from Old French garlande; no productive English prefix or suffix)