Word.ws English Dictionary

faïence

faïence is the alternative spelling of faience.

Meaning of faience

Noun

faience (countable and uncountable, plural faiences)

  1. A type of tin-glazed earthenware ceramic, used domestically for tableware and in architecture as a decorative material.
    • The smile, you see, is perfect—wonderful / As mere Faience! a table ornament / To suit the richest mounting.1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to...
  2. Beads or small ornaments made from frit, from the eastern Mediterranean of the Bronze and Iron Ages.
    • Beneath these booths were spread their goods; silks from Cos, bronze weapons and copper rods, or ingots from the rich mines of Cyprus, linens and muslins from Egypt; beads, idols, carven bowls, knives, glass ware, pottery in all shapes, and charms made of glazed faience or Egyptian stone; […].1898, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter IV, in Elissa […]

Forms of faïence

pluralfaïences

Questions about faïence

What is faïence the alternative spelling of?
Faïence is the alternative spelling of faience.

Words near faïence in the dictionary

  1. façonné
  2. façonnés
  3. faërie
  4. faëries
  5. faëry
  6. faïence
  7. faïences
  8. Fažana
  9. fb
  10. FBA
  11. FBC

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: faïence (page history and authors); faience (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.

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Cite this entry: “faïence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fa%C3%AFence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.