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PlainSpell

embroider

em·broi·der/ɪmˈbɹɔɪdɚ/verb

embroider is a verb meaning “To stitch a decorative design on fabric with needle and thread of various colours” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled E-M-B-R-O-I-D-E-R and has 3 syllables (em·broi·der), and it appears about once in every 6 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does embroider mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To stitch a decorative design on fabric with needle and thread of various colours.

  2. 2

    To add imaginary detail to a narrative to make it more interesting or acceptable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce embroider?

  • US /ɪmˈbɹɔɪdɚ/
  • UK /ɪmˈbɹɔɪdə/

Embroider has 3 syllables, split em·broi·der in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-embroider.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of embroider

  • embroiders present, singular, he/she/it
  • embroidering participle, present
  • embroidered participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is embroider?

Embroider appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 75,877th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Embroider in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbroder (to stitch a decorative design on fabric with…)
Germansticken, besticken (to stitch a decorative design on fabric with…), ausschmücken (to add imaginary detail to a narrative)
Portuguesebordar (to stitch a decorative design on fabric with…), florear (to add imaginary detail to a narrative)
Spanishbordar (to stitch a decorative design on fabric with…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does embroider come from?

From Middle English embrouderen, frequentative of embrouden (“to decorate, embroider”), equivalent to embroid + -er. Middle English embrouden itself comes from Anglo-Norman embrouder, from Old French embrosder (“to embroider”), ultimately of Germanic origin, though the exact pathway is uncertain. Possibly an intensive of Old French brosder, brouder (compare Norman broudaïr), from Gothic *𐌱𐍂𐌿𐌶𐌳𐍉𐌽 (*bruzdōn), related to English bristle and brad.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).