Word.ws English Dictionary

fayence

fayence is the alternative form 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 fayence

pluralfayences

Questions about fayence

What is fayence the alternative form of?
Fayence is the alternative form of faience.

Words near fayence in the dictionary

  1. Fayard
  2. Fayards
  3. faydom
  4. Faye
  5. fayed
  6. fayence
  7. fayences
  8. Fayette
  9. Fayette County
  10. Fayettenam
  11. Fayetteville

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fayence (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: “fayence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fayence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.