Word.ws English Dictionary

frontispiece

/ˈfɹʌn.tɪsˌpiːs/US/ˈfɹʌn.tɪsˌpis/

frontispiece noun: an illustration that is on the page before the title page of a book, a section of one, or a magazine.

Noun

frontispiece (plural frontispieces)

  1. An illustration that is on the page before the title page of a book, a section of one, or a magazine.
    • The viaduct was illustrated as a frontispiece to THE RAILWAY MAGAZINE of September, 1938. [In this case, the frontispiece is between the title page and the first article.]1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 163
  2. (archaic) The title page of a book.
  3. A façade, especially an ornamental one.
  4. A small ornamental pediment, especially at the top of a window or door.
  5. (archaic, humorous, slang) A person's face.
    • He carries on his frontispiece the indubitable marks of a money-dealer. His is one of those peculiar faces […]1844, George Pope Morris, Nathaniel Parker Willis, The New Mirror, volume 3, page 99

Verb

frontispiece (third-person singular simple present frontispieces, present participle frontispiecing, simple past and past participle frontispieced)

  1. (rare, transitive) To supply with a frontispiece.
    • The novel was frontispieced with a portrait of the author.

frontispiece meaning in Tamil

frontispiece in Tamil

முகப்பு

Forms of frontispiece

Noun
pluralfrontispieces
alternative formfrontipiece
alternative formfrontispice
Verb
third-person singular presentfrontispieces
present participlefrontispiecing
past participlefrontispieced
pastfrontispieced

Origin of frontispiece

From Middle French frontispice, from Italian frontespizio or Medieval Latin frontispicium, from Latin frōns (“forehead”, oblique stem in front-) + -spic- (“to watch”, combining form of speciō) + -ium. Spelling altered due to folk etymology, influenced by piece.

Questions about frontispiece

What does frontispiece mean?
Frontispiece means an illustration that is on the page before the title page of a book, a section of one, or a magazine.
What is frontispiece in Tamil?
Frontispiece in Tamil is முகப்பு. See Frontispiece meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is frontispiece?
Frontispiece can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce frontispiece?
Frontispiece is pronounced /ˈfɹʌn.tɪsˌpiːs/ (UK).
What is the plural of frontispiece?
The plural of frontispiece is frontispieces.

Words near frontispiece in the dictionary

  1. frontipiece
  2. frontipieces
  3. frontish
  4. frontispice
  5. frontispices
  6. frontispiece
  7. frontispieced
  8. frontispieces
  9. frontispiecing
  10. frontlash
  11. frontlashes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: frontispiece (page history and authors); frontispiece (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-frontispiece.wav.

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