tassel
/ˈtæsəl/
tassel noun: a ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads from which at one end protrudes a cord on which the ball is hung, and which may have loose, dangling threads at the other end (often used as decoration along the bottom of garments, curtains or other hangings). Also the alternative form of tassell.
Noun
tassel (plural tassels)
- A ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads from which at one end protrudes a cord on which the ball is hung, and which may have loose, dangling threads at the other end (often used as decoration along the bottom of garments, curtains or other hangings).
- The Giant's boots were of pink leather and had tassels on them and his hat was decorated with an enormous pink ostrich feather, carefully curled.1912, L. Frank Baum, The Patchwork Girl of Oz
- The panicle on a male plant of maize, which consists of loose threads with anthers on them.
- The plant world is very busy and helpful when it seems to be playing. The tall, plumy tassels at the tops of corn stalks, swing much as you do under the maple tree. But those tassels are so loaded with pollen that you can often see a brown dust hovering over a corn field. As the wind blows the...1915, Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson, The How and Why Library, Life - Plants - Section IX
- The loose hairs at the end of a braid.
- A narrow silk ribbon, or similar, sewn to a book to be put between the pages.
- A piece of board that is laid upon a wall as a sort of plate, to give a level surface to the ends of floor timbers.
- A kind of bur used in dressing cloth; a teasel.
- A thin plate of gold on the back of a bishop's gloves.
Verb
tassel (third-person singular simple present tassels, present participle (US) tasseling or (UK) tasselling, simple past and past participle (US) tasseled or (UK) tasselled)
Also used as
tassel is also the alternative form of tassell.
tassel meaning in Tagalog, Arabic, Malay and Persian
tassel in Tagalog
- ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads
- lambo
tassel in Arabic
- ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads
- شُرَّابَة šurrāba
tassel in Malay
- ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads
- jurai
tassel in Persian
- ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads
- منگوله mangule
More languagesFewer languages
- tassel in Thai
- พู่ห้อย
- tassel in Vietnamese
- ngù
Examples of tassel in a sentence
- The colorful tassels of the visible ends of the hierarchs' epitrachelions suggest a late-fourteenth century date.
- Even the mantelpiece is adorned with a totally unfunctional tasselled valance rather like an altar frontal.
- His fustian shirt, sanguineflowered, trembles its Spanish tassels at his secrets.
Synonyms of tassel
Forms of tassel
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tassels |
| alternative form (archaic) | tossel |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tassels |
| present participle US | tasseling |
| present participle UK | tasselling |
| past participle US | tasseled |
| past US | tasseled |
| past participle UK | tasselled |
| past UK | tasselled |
Origin of tassel
From Middle English tassel, from Old French tassel, from Latin tāxillus (“small cube”), from tālus (“ankle”).
See tassell.
Words formed from tassel
Words that rhyme with tassel
Questions about tassel
- What does tassel mean?
- Tassel means a ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads from which at one end protrudes a cord on which the ball is hung, and which may have loose, dangling threads at the other end (often used as decoration along the bottom of garments, curtains or other hangings).
- What is tassel in Tagalog?
- Tassel in Tagalog is lambo. See Tassel meaning in Tagalog.
- What part of speech is tassel?
- Tassel can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce tassel?
- Tassel is pronounced /ˈtæsəl/.
- What is the plural of tassel?
- The plural of tassel is tassels.
Words near tassel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tassel (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: en-us-tassel.ogg.
Cite this entry: “tassel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tassel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.