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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

frieze.

A kind of coarse woollen cloth or stuff with a shaggy or tufted (friezed) nap on one side.

6 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfɹiːz/
  1. A kind of coarse woollen cloth or stuff with a shaggy or tufted (friezed) nap on one side.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Late Middle English, from French and Middle French frise, probably from Medieval Latin Frisia (“Frisian (wool)”) due to import via Northern ships. Or, from French friser (“to curl”)..

verb/ˈfɹiːz/
  1. To make a nap on (cloth); to frizz.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Late Middle English, from French and Middle French frise, probably from Medieval Latin Frisia (“Frisian (wool)”) due to import via Northern ships. Or, from French friser (“to curl”)..

noun/ˈfɹiːz/
  1. The portion of an architectural entablature situated between the architrave and the cornice, consisting of a flat surface that may be continuous or articulated by triglyphs and is often decorated with sculptural figures and ornamental details.

  2. Any sculptured or richly ornamented band in a building or in rich pieces of furniture.

    broadly
  3. A banner with a series of pictures.

    The classroom had an alphabet frieze that showed an animal for each letter.
Where this word comes from

From French and Middle French frise f, derived from an Upper Italian fris f, Medieval Latin frisum, frisium, frigium, frixum, frigium, of controversial origin, possibly from multiple sources, Arabic إِفْرِيز (ʔifrīz, “king beam, cornice”) and Latin opus Phrygium (“a kind of embroidery”, literally “work of Phrygia”), the demonym Frisian and terms related to the textile term above in a transferred sense.

verb/ˈfɹiːz/
  1. To put a frieze on.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From French and Middle French frise f, derived from an Upper Italian fris f, Medieval Latin frisum, frisium, frigium, frixum, frigium, of controversial origin, possibly from multiple sources, Arabic إِفْرِيز (ʔifrīz, “king beam, cornice”) and Latin opus Phrygium (“a kind of embroidery”, literally “work of Phrygia”), the demonym Frisian and terms related to the textile term above in a transferred sense.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.