Word.ws English Dictionary

porcelain

Syllables: por·ce·lain/ˈpɔːsəlɪn/US/ˈpɔɹs(ə)lɪn/

porcelain noun: a hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as a symbol of the fragility, elegance, etc. traditionally associated with porcelain goods.

porcelain: a hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high...
Image: Jebulon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

porcelain (countable and uncountable, plural porcelains)

  1. (uncountable, usually) A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as a symbol of the fragility, elegance, etc. traditionally associated with porcelain goods.
    • Tableware and toilets are both made of porcelain.
    • Any power rail needs to be well insulated from earth, to minimise current leakage, and so the two power rails on the Underground sit on curiously genteel and antique-looking porcelain pots.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 136
  2. (uncountable, usually) Synonym of china: porcelain tableware.
    • iij. potts of Erthe payntid, callyd Porseland.c. 1530, letter in Original Letters Illustrative of English History, Vol. II, p. 242
    • He set the table with our porcelain and stemware.
    Synonyms:
    china, chinaware
  3. (obsolete, uncountable) Synonym of kaolin: the kind of clay traditionally used in China to manufacture porcelain.
    • [...] that earthen or pliable matter commonly called porcellan, which is pure white,... wherof vessels of all kinds are very curiously framed...1599, E. de Sande, translated by Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, 2nd edition, volume II, page 91
    Synonyms:
    kaolin
  4. (countable, plural-normally) An object made of porcelain, (particularly) art objects or items of tableware.
    • The museum has an extensive collection of rare Chinese porcelains.
    Synonyms:
    china
  5. (countable, rare) Synonym of cowrie.
    • In the kingdomes of Caiacan and Carazan, certaine sea shels are currant, which some men terme Porcelline.1601, Giovanni Botero, translated by Robert Johnson, The Trauellers Breuiat, or, An Historicall Description of the Most Famous Kingdomes in the World, page 104
    Synonyms:
    cowrie
  6. (countable, historical, obsolete) Synonym of wampum: strings of shells, beads, etc. used as ornamentation or currency; the composite shells, beads, etc.
    • We mett severall gangs of men to our greatest disadvantage, ffor we weare forced to sing, and those that came to see us gave porcelaine to those that most did us injury.c. 1665, Pierre Esprit de Radisson, Voyages, 1885 edition, page 49
    Synonyms:
    wampum
  7. (capitalized, countable, often) A kind of pigeon with deep brown and off-white feathers.
    • Those pretty spangled Toys [...] known by various names, as Porcelains, Hyacinths, Ermines, &c.1855, The Poultry Chronicle, number 3, page 9
  8. (Git) The set of Git commands, such as `git commit` or `git checkout`, which control the high-level state of the repository, each typically combining the behaviour of multiple plumbing commands.
    • Coordinate term: plumbing
    • The2016, Jakub Narębski, “Keeping History Clean”, in Mastering Git, Birmingham, West Midlands: Packt Publishing Ltd., page 227

Verb

porcelain (third-person singular simple present porcelains, present participle porcelaining, simple past and past participle porcelained)

  1. (transitive) To coat with a porcelain enamel.

porcelain meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

porcelain in Hindi

hard white translucent ceramic
पॉर्सिलेन pŏrsilen, चीनी का बरतन cīnī kā bartan, चीनी cīnī

porcelain in Tamil

பீங்கான்

porcelain in Marathi

पोर्सिलेन, पोर्सेलिन, पोर्सेलेइन

porcelain in Urdu

hard white translucent ceramic
چِینِی cīnī, چِینِی کا بَرْتَن cīnī kā bartan, چِینِی مِٹِّی cīnī miṭṭī
More languagesFewer languages
porcelain in Bengali
চীনামাটি cinamaṭi, কেত্তলিন kettolin
porcelain in Telugu
పింగాణీ, పోర్సలీన్
porcelain in Malayalam
പിഞ്ഞാണം piññāṇaṁ
porcelain in Kannada
ಪಿಂಗಾಣಿ piṅgāṇi
porcelain in Punjabi
ਪੋਰਸਿਲੇਨ, ਪੋਰਸਲੀਨ, ਪੋਰਸਲੈਨਿੰਗ
porcelain in Gujarati
ચીની cīnī
porcelain in Odia
ପୋର୍ସେଲିଂ
porcelain in Sinhala
පෝසිලේන් pōsilēn
porcelain in Nepali
पोर्सिलेन, पोर्सेलिन, पोर्सेलेइन
porcelain in Tagalog
pamantingin
porcelain in Arabic
خَزَف ḵazaf
porcelain in Malay
porselin, tembikar
porcelain in Indonesian
porselen, tembikar
porcelain in Persian
پورسلین porselin
porcelain in Thai
เครื่องลายคราม krʉ̂ʉang-laai-kraam
porcelain in Vietnamese
sứ, đồ sứ
porcelain in Myanmar
ကြွေထည်ပစ္စည်း krwehtanypaccany:

Examples of porcelain in a sentence

  • I used a nonabrasive cleanser to clean the porcelain fixtures because I didn't want to scratch them.
  • He has an eye for fine porcelain dishes and figurines.
  • The fancy restaurant used a white porcelain charger when serving.

All 40 example sentences with porcelain

Synonyms of porcelain

All synonyms of porcelain

Forms of porcelain

Noun
pluralporcelains
Verb
third-person singular presentporcelains
present participleporcelaining
past participleporcelained
pastporcelained

Plural of porcelain: porcelains

Origin of porcelain

Borrowed from Middle French porcelaine (“cowrie, wampum; china, chinaware”), from Old Italian porcellana (“cowrie; china, chinaware”), from Italian porcello (“piglet”). The material was so called because of its resemblance to the shell of the cowrie. Why the cowrie was named with a word meaning “piglet” is unclear.

Words formed from porcelain

Phrases with porcelain

22 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about porcelain

What does porcelain mean?
Porcelain means a hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as a symbol of the fragility, elegance, etc. traditionally associated with porcelain goods.
What is porcelain in Hindi?
Porcelain in Hindi is पॉर्सिलेन (pŏrsilen), चीनी का बरतन (cīnī kā bartan), चीनी (cīnī). See Porcelain meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is porcelain?
Porcelain can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce porcelain?
Porcelain is pronounced /ˈpɔːsəlɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of porcelain?
The plural of porcelain is porcelains.

Words near porcelain in the dictionary

  1. Porcaros
  2. porcate
  3. porcated
  4. Porcayo
  5. Porcayos
  6. porcelain
  7. porcelain aorta
  8. porcelain aortas
  9. porcelain biscuit
  10. porcelain bus
  11. porcelain buses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: porcelain (page history and authors); porcelain (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); porcelain (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); porcelain (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); പിഞ്ഞാണം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); porcelain (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ચીની (Gujarati) (page history and authors); porcelain (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); porcelain (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-porcelain.wav.

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