Word.ws English Dictionary

applique

UK/əˈpliː.keɪ//ˌæ.plɪˈkeɪ/

applique noun: a decorative design made by cutting pieces of material and applying them to the surface of another for decoration.

applique: a decorative design made by cutting pieces of material and applying them to the surface of another...
Image: Jeff Muceus from Portland, Oregon, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

applique (countable and uncountable, plural appliques)

  1. A decorative design made by cutting pieces of material and applying them to the surface of another for decoration.
    • Has anybody seen a dog dyed dark green / […] / And designer jeans with appliques on it?1980, “Quiche Lorraine”, in Wild Planet, performed by The B-52's

Verb

applique (third-person singular simple present appliques, present participle appliqueing, simple past and past participle appliqued)

  1. (transitive) To decorate something in this way.

applique meaning in Malay and Indonesian

applique in Malay

decorative design
tampal hias

applique in Indonesian

decorative design
aplikasi

Forms of applique

Noun
pluralappliques
alternative formappliqué
Verb
third-person singular presentappliques
present participleappliqueing
past participleappliqued
pastappliqued

Origin of applique

Borrowed from French appliqué.

Words formed from applique

Questions about applique

What does applique mean?
Applique means a decorative design made by cutting pieces of material and applying them to the surface of another for decoration.
What is applique in Malay?
Applique in Malay is tampal hias. See Applique meaning in Malay.
What part of speech is applique?
Applique can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce applique?
Applique is pronounced /əˈpliː.keɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of applique?
The plural of applique is appliques.

Words near applique in the dictionary

  1. Applin
  2. appling
  3. Appling County
  4. appling up
  5. Applins
  6. applique
  7. appliqued
  8. appliqueing
  9. appliquer
  10. appliquers
  11. appliques

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: applique (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-applique.ogg.

Cite this entry: “applique.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/applique. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.