ormolu

Syllables: or·mo·lu/ˈɔː(ɹ)məˌluː/US/ˈɔɹməˌlu/

ormolu noun: golden or gilded brass or bronze used for decorative purposes.

Noun

ormolu (countable and uncountable, plural ormolus)

Golden or gilded brass or bronze used for decorative purposes.
- Had he deemed it "wisest, best," Mr. O'Donagough was not without the means of furnishing a splendid mansion in very showy style, and yet not leaving a single morsel of lacker, or or-molu, unpaid for.1840, Frances Trollope, “Practical Information Carefully Obtained, and Promptly Acted upon— […]”, in The Widow Married; […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 2
- It is an old-fashioned space of pink-and-green trellis carpet and French ormolu, half-concealed by heavy brocade curtains.2023 September 23, Lauren Indvik, “God is in the details”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3

ormolu (not comparable)

Made from golden or gilded brass or bronze.
- At one of the ormolu tables, near a lamp with a pink shade, Gaston insisted on making at least a partial statement.1888, Henry James, The Reverberator, Macmillan and Co.
- "He [R. L. Stevenson] took his mother?" I repeated, off guard, and he replied, turning a quick back flip of satisfaction, "Yeah, and his ormolu clock, and all his furniture from Edinburgh."1997 May 17, Marianne Macdonald, “Who is Paul Theroux?”, in Independent (UK)

ormolu (third-person singular simple present ormolus, present participle ormoluing, simple past and past participle ormolued)

To decorate with gilded ormolu articles.
- But I have seen apartments in the tenure of Americans—men of exceedingly moderate means yet rara aves of good taste—which, in negative merit at least, might vie with any of the or-molued cabinets of our friends across the water.1840, Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Furniture

பளபளப்பு வெண்கலம்

Noun
plural	ormolus
alternative form	or-molu
alternative form	or-moulu
alternative form	ormulu
Verb
third-person singular present	ormolus
present participle	ormoluing
past participle	ormolued
past	ormolued

From French or moulu (literally “ground gold”).

What does ormolu mean?: Ormolu means golden or gilded brass or bronze used for decorative purposes.
What is ormolu in Tamil?: Ormolu in Tamil is பளபளப்பு வெண்கலம். See Ormolu meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is ormolu?: Ormolu can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce ormolu?: Ormolu is pronounced /ˈɔː(ɹ)məˌluː/ (UK).
What is the plural of ormolu?: The plural of ormolu is ormolus.

Adapted from Wiktionary: ormolu (page history and authors); ormolu (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: 2026-09-02

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

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