Tapestry

How to spell tapestry

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce tapestry

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tapestry mean?

1. nounA heavy fabric woven with decorative pictures or patterns, often hung on a wall.
2. nounAn intricate or varied combination of many elements seen as a whole.

Tapestry in a sentence

• A faded tapestry of a hunting scene covered the castle wall.

• The city is a rich tapestry of cultures, languages, and traditions.

• The museum restored a medieval tapestry that had hung in the great hall for centuries.

• His memoir weaves childhood, work, and travel into a single tapestry.

Where does tapestry come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word goes back to the ancient Greek tapes, which simply meant a carpet, rug, or woven covering thrown over furniture or floors. Latin borrowed it as tapete, and the idea travelled into Old French as tapis, meaning a carpet or cloth covering, from which came tapisserie, the craft and product of such weaving. English took it in during the late 1300s, with early forms such as 'tapissry' showing the French shape before the spelling settled. Over time the word narrowed to mean a thick fabric woven with pictures or patterns, often hung on a wall, and only later did it acquire the figurative sense of any rich, interwoven whole. The middle of the word is the spelling trap: an unstressed vowel sits between the two clear syllables, so writers must remember it is 'tap-es-try' rather than 'tap-is-try' or 'tap-stry'.

How the word is built

• tapestr- (from Old French tapisserie: woven hanging)
• -y (noun suffix)