adorn implies an enhancing by something beautiful in itself.
a diamond necklace adorned her neck
decorate suggests relieving plainness or monotony by adding beauty of color or design.
decorate a birthday cake
ornament and embellish imply the adding of something extraneous, ornament stressing the heightening or setting off of the original
a white house ornamented with green shutters
, embellish often stressing the adding of superfluous or adventitious ornament.
embellish a page with floral borders
beautify adds to embellish a suggestion of counterbalancing plainness or ugliness.
will beautify the grounds with flower beds
deck implies the addition of something that contributes to gaiety, splendor, or showiness.
a house all decked out for Christmas
garnish suggests decorating with a small final touch and is used especially in referring to the serving of food.
an entrée garnished with parsley
Examples of beautify in a Sentence
Fresh flowers beautify every room.
volunteers beautified the roadside landscape by planting flowers
Recent Examples on the WebHer efforts led to the creation of Streams and Valleys Inc., a nonprofit that works with Fort Worth Parks & Recreation and other partners to beautify the river, develop recreational amenities and plan low-water dams.—Hollace Ava Weiner, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 11 May 2024 The city of Palo Alto’s looking to beautify its streets by adding art to utility boxes.—Sal Pizarro, The Mercury News, 19 Mar. 2024 Their end goals might be somewhat different: to beautify the world, offer resources to others or create a space to share an urgent message.—Chicago Tribune, Orange County Register, 1 Feb. 2024 In strictly physical terms, no article of clothing does more to articulate and augment the line of our bodies — to beautify us or deform us — than pants.—Jonah Weiner, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2024 Some cities have even used the practice to beautify their downtowns.—Jeff McMurray, Fortune, 2 Mar. 2024 After his morning discussion with his mother, Wooden often continues to beautify the landscape.—C. Isaiah Smalls Ii, Miami Herald, 18 Feb. 2024 Graffiti at its worst does nothing to beautify neighborhoods.—Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2024 This innovative solution not only beautifies homes but also reduces energy costs and contributes to sustainability.—Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 12 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'beautify.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Middle English bewtyfien, from beautebeauty + -fien-fy
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