How to use filigree in a sentence

19 example sentences · noun, verb

Filigree means a delicate and intricate ornamentation made from platinum, gold or silver (or sometimes other metal) twisted wire. Example: “Cloisonne is sometimes seen as a cheaper alternative to jewelled encrustation or filigree.”

Examples of filigree by meaning

nounA delicate and intricate ornamentation made from platinum, gold or silver (or sometimes other metal) twisted wire.

Her brown hair was waved in front and done up behind in a great twist, held by a tortoiseshell comb with gold filigree.1915 October, Willa Sibert Cather, chapter I, in The Song of the Lark, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company […], →OCLC...
After that, having studied herself gravely in a long glass, she took from one of the drawers of her dressing-table a black leather card-case cornered in silver filigree, but found it empty.1921, Booth Tarkington, Alice Adams

nounAnything resembling such intricate ornamentation.

The trees grew so thickly and their foliage spread so widely that I could see nothing of the moon-light save that here and there the high branches made a tangled filigree against the starry sky.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
Only the hair as it arched so beautifully from her temples was mixed with silver, and the two simple plaits that lay on her shoulders were filigree of silver and brown.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC
Justh added considerable filigree in the course of the 66-minute performance, none sanctioned by the score, but captivating enough to justify its berth.2007 December 1, Allan Kozinn, “That Same Old Beat, With Brand-New Choices”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 17 Jan...

More sentences with filigree

Cloisonne is sometimes seen as a cheaper alternative to jewelled encrustation or filigree.From the entry cloisonne
We've got some paperwork to do before we can get started. The piece was decorated with intricate filigree work.From the entry work
He is worth substantially more money if this filigree drapery is still intact.2005, John Kenneth Muir, An Analytical Guide to Television’s Battlestar Galactica, page 187. From the entry removable
Bold strokes and fine filigree in the same breath, as it were.2002 August 26, William D. Tallman, “I'm Serious,^([sic]) I need some ideas....”, in alt.os.linux.mandrake (Usenet), archived from the…. From the entry Willy Wigglestick
He shook her gently, combing his fingers through her coppery curls that caped her shoulders like filigree.1991, Terri Valentine, Outlaw’s Kiss, Zebra Books, →ISBN, page 329. From the entry cape
He rebuilt the rotted front porch, restoring some of the Victorian filigree in the process, and reshingled the front facade.2007 May 13, Stephen P. Williams, “A Wished-For House With a Hideaway Nook”, in New York Times. From the entry reshingle
And the grips—for a fighting sword we have ivory, filigree—'2005, Julian Stockwin, chapter 2, in Tenacious, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 30. From the entry quillon
More octaves ensue, followed by chromatic passagework with filigree scales.1987, Harold C. Schonberg, The Great Pianists, →ISBN, page 189. From the entry passagework
Another, of rubies and amethysts, set in gold filigree.1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company…. From the entry gaud
On the complex workout “A Whole New You,” he shifted between percussive accents and elaborative filigree, in a way that matched the flow of Mr.2007 May 5, Nate Chinen, “A Young Saxophonist in Good Post-Bop Company”, in New York Times. From the entry elaborative
He deplored the medireview practice of covering oneself with a filigree of guru-talk and expressing excessive superiority through the blind belief that was prevalent.2006, Yoga Niketan, A Collection of Biographies of 4 Kriya Yoga Gurus by Swami Satyananda Girl, page 120. From the entry medireview
His playing, full of clustered filigree and loosely rendered rhythms, nods toward Ethiopia’s tradition of solitary folk playing, typically on the krar or the masinko, both stringed instruments.2018 February 20, Giovanni Russonello, “An African Funk Pioneer Gets a Second Chance on a Global Stage”, in The New York Times, New York…. From the entry krar
What Jane Austen has done in English fiction, Meher did in Oriya poetry—making a miniature but highly finished filigree work of the little world in which he lived.1960, Mayadhar Mansinha, History of Oriya Literature, Sahitya Akademi, page 202. From the entry Sambalpur
I'm riddled at the hips and knees, roundsided as parentheses since my shrunken spine has known osteoporosis and my extremities have shriveled into lacy filigrees, breakable as glass on stone.1997, The American Scholar - Volume 66, page 120. From the entry roundsided

Meaning of filigree

noun A delicate and intricate ornamentation made from platinum, gold or silver (or sometimes other metal) twisted wire.
noun Anything resembling such intricate ornamentation.
verb To decorate something with intricate ornamentation made from gold or silver twisted wire.

Full definition of filigree

Questions about filigree in a sentence

How do you use filigree in a sentence?: Filigree is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Cloisonne is sometimes seen as a cheaper alternative to jewelled encrustation or filigree.”
What is a short sentence with filigree?: “Another, of rubies and amethysts, set in gold filigree.”
What does filigree mean?: Filigree means a delicate and intricate ornamentation made from platinum, gold or silver (or sometimes other metal) twisted wire.

Adapted from Wiktionary: filigree (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use filigree in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/filigree. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.