cornice

UK/ˈkɔːnɪs//ˈkoɹnɪs/

cornice noun: a horizontal architectural element of a building, projecting forward from the main walls, originally used as a means of directing rainwater away from the building's walls.

Noun

cornice (plural cornices)

A horizontal architectural element of a building, projecting forward from the main walls, originally used as a means of directing rainwater away from the building's walls.
- It is a large square structure, two and a half stories in height, with a hipped roof rising above a handsome cornice with prominent modillions and surmounted by a balustraded belvedere.1920, Frank Cousins, Phil M. Riley, The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company
A decorative element applied at the topmost part of the wall of a room, as with a crown molding.
- That ceiling was covered with square compartments,[...] It was supported by a gilded cornice, carved into a thousand curious shapes and emblems, among which the horned wolf, the crest of the Avonleigh family, was conspicuous.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 113
- Challenger looked up at the cornice and round at the skirting.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “In which Challenger Meets a Strange Colleague”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
A decorative element at the topmost portion of certain pieces of furniture, as with a highboy.
- And blood was on the roof, and great gouts of blood on the walls and on the cornice of my bed.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 18
An overhanging edge of snow on a ridge or the crest of a mountain and along the sides of gullies.
- Looking to the east we could see Api and the mountains of west Nepal, shapely snow peaks in the distance, while in the immediate foreground, much lower but still dramatic, were the peaks of Panch Chuli IV and V (III was hidden by the lip of a huge cornice), Telkot and Nagling, all of them...1999, Harish Kapadia, “Ascents in the Panch Chuli Group”, in Across Peaks & Passes in Kumaun Himalaya, New Delhi: Indus Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 136
Synonyms:

snow cornice

Verb

cornice (third-person singular simple present cornices, present participle cornicing, simple past and past participle corniced)

(transitive) To furnish or decorate with a cornice.

cornice meaning in Tamil, Telugu, Tagalog and Persian

cornice in Telugu

cornice, battlement: చిరుగొమ్మ cirugomma

cornice in Tagalog

horizontal architectural element: kornisa

cornice in Persian

horizontal architectural element: قرنیز qarniz

Examples of cornice in a sentence

The pendentives themselves visually support a cornice ring which then forms the base for the cupola.
The semiglazed chintz curtains are hung from a rod placed inside a painted wooden cornice.
Valances, swags, or cornices may be installed over draped walls to enhance the impression of a window treatment.

All 14 example sentences with cornice

Synonyms of cornice

snow cornice

Forms of cornice

Noun
plural	cornices
Verb
third-person singular present	cornices
present participle	cornicing
past participle	corniced
past	corniced

Plural of cornice: cornices

Origin of cornice

From Middle French corniche or Italian cornice, possibly from either (1) Latin cornīx (“crow”) or (2) Latin coronis (“curved line, flourish in writing”), from Ancient Greek κορωνίς (korōnís). See also corniche.

Words formed from cornice

Phrases with cornice

cornice rings

Questions about cornice

What does cornice mean?: Cornice means a horizontal architectural element of a building, projecting forward from the main walls, originally used as a means of directing rainwater away from the building's walls.
What is cornice in Tamil?: Cornice in Tamil is கொடுங்கை, எழுதகம். See Cornice meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is cornice?: Cornice can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce cornice?: Cornice is pronounced /ˈkɔːnɪs/ (UK).
What is the plural of cornice?: The plural of cornice is cornices.

Words near cornice in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: cornice (page history and authors); cornice (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); చిరుగొమ్మ (Telugu) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-cornice.wav.

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