baroque
/bæˈɹɒk/US/bəˈɹoʊk/
baroque adjective: ornate, intricate, decorated, laden with detail.
Adjective (1)
baroque (comparative baroquer, superlative baroquest)
- Ornate, intricate, decorated, laden with detail.
- Complex and beautiful, despite an outward irregularity.
- Chiseled from stone, or shaped from wood, in a garish, crooked, twisted, or slanted sort of way, grotesque.
- Embellished with figures and forms such that every level of relief gives way to more details and contrasts.
- Characteristic of Western art and music of the Early Modern period.
- According to baroque.org, characteristics of baroque music include loud and soft dynamics, emphasis on harmony, and the use of string instruments and the harpsichord.2022 May 2, Mary Beth Bauermann, “Bach-Rock: When Rock Went Baroque”, in Flat Hat Magazine, archived from the original on 09 Jul 2025
- Overly and needlessly complicated.
- grotesquely baroque bureaucratic hassles
- baroque bookkeeping in pursuit of tax dodges
Noun
baroque (plural baroques)
- An ornate, detailed style.
- […] has semi-circular arches similar to those in Bourges, but pierced by unusual and irregular openings, and ringed with amusing portrait heads such as would not be found in the great Gothic Baroques of France.2003, Michael Jacobs, The Road to Santiago, page 103
Adjective (2) capitalized: Baroque
Baroque (comparative more Baroque, superlative most Baroque)
- From or characteristic of the Baroque period.
Proper noun capitalized: Baroque
Baroque
- A period in Western architecture, art, and music from c. 1600–1760 CE, known for its abundance of drama, rich color, and extensive ornamentation.
- The chess variant invented in 1962 by mathematician Robert Abbott, or any of its descendants, where pieces move alike, but have differing methods of capture.
- Synonyms:
- Ultima
baroque meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
baroque in Hindi
- बारोक, बरोक
baroque in Tamil
- பரோக்
baroque in Marathi
- बारोक, बरोक
baroque in Urdu
- باروک
More languagesFewer languages
- baroque in Bengali
- বারোক, বরোক
- baroque in Telugu
- బరోక్, బారోక్
- baroque in Malayalam
- അലങ്കാരമേദുരമായ, ധാരാളം വിചിത്രമായ അലങ്കാരപ്പണി ചെയ്ത, വിലക്ഷണമായ അലങ്കാരങ്ങളുള്ള, അത്യലംകൃതമായ
- baroque in Kannada
- ಬರೊಕ್
- baroque in Punjabi
- ਬਾਰੋਕ
- baroque in Gujarati
- બારોક, બરોક
- baroque in Odia
- ବାରୋକ, ବାରୋକ୍, ବରୋକ୍
- baroque in Nepali
- बारोक, बरोक
Examples of baroque in a sentence
- Are we in baroque pitch for this one?
- Faux 19th-century bartenders in sleeve garters and baroque facial hair ply their trade in pre-Prohibition bars.
- Baroque is a good game, but only for a very narrow subset of the gaming audience.
Synonyms of baroque
Forms of baroque
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | baroquer |
| superlative | baroquest |
| comparative | more Baroque |
| superlative | most Baroque |
| Noun | |
| plural | baroques |
Origin of baroque
Via French baroque (which originally meant a pearl of irregular shape), from Portuguese barroco (“irregular pearl”); related to Spanish barrueco and Italian barocco, of uncertain ultimate origin, but possibly from Latin verrūca (“wart”). It has been suggested that the term derives from Baroco, a technical term from scholastic logic.
Via French (which originally meant a pearl of irregular shape) from Portuguese barroco (“irregular pearl”); related to Spanish barrueco and Italian barocco and Sicilian baroccu, of uncertain ultimate origin, but possibly from Latin verruca (“wart”), or possibly from the technical construction of scholastic logic, Baroco.
Words formed from baroque
Phrases with baroque
Words that rhyme with baroque
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- sock
- unlock
- flock
- locke
- mock
- ad hoc
- frock
- unblock
- undock
- VOC
- chock
- defrock
- nock
- o'clock
- prairie dock
- proc
- smock
- acock
- amok
- bangkok
- bloc
- Carvel Rock
- doc
- grok
- hough
- loch
- pock
- slock
- wedlock
- wok
- 24-hour clock
- bock
- bok
- brocc
- choc
- croc
- digital clock
- drop lock
- Farallon Rock
- flight sock
- freezer block
- gock
- hashlock
- hock
- kozachok
- lough
- Nixon shock
- oc
Questions about baroque
- What does baroque mean?
- Baroque means ornate, intricate, decorated, laden with detail.
- What is baroque in Hindi?
- Baroque in Hindi is बारोक, बरोक. See Baroque meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is baroque?
- Baroque can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce baroque?
- Baroque is pronounced /bæˈɹɒk/ (UK).
Words near baroque in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: baroque (page history and authors); Baroque (page history and authors); baroque (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); baroque (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); baroque (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); baroque (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); baroque (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); baroque (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); baroque (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); baroque (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); baroque (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); baroque (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); baroque (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); baroque (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-baroque.wav.
Cite this entry: “baroque.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/baroque. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.