intarsia means A decorative form of Italian wood inlaying. It carries an Arena rating of 1479, earned across 17 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, intarsia ranks #1,325 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #1,770 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,772 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #2,545 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
Why “intarsia” is a great word
Intarsia is a decorative technique of inlaying pieces of wood, ivory, or other materials into a solid ground to form pictorial or geometric designs, or a knitting method that creates analogous mosaic-like patterns with separate, non-stranded blocks of color. From Italian intarsio (inlaid mosaic work), from intarsiare (to inlay), from in- (in, from Latin) + tarsia (inlaid work, from Arabic tarṣīʿ). First attested in English 1860–65. Unlike marquetry, which applies a decorative veneer to a surface, or Fair Isle knitting, which strands colors across the back, intarsia is an art of embedding and discrete juxtaposition. It is the patient tessellation of rare woods into a Renaissance studiolo, the crisp silhouette of a scarlet leaf emerging from a field of forest-green wool, the precise negative space where one substance yields to another—a testament to the order we can impose, piece by separate piece, upon a resistant and fragmentary world.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian intarsio.
noun
- A decorative form of Italian wood inlaying.e.g.“The steps of the raised temple in which the saint and the basilisk perform have a beautiful intarsia of foliage similar to that on the Giants' Staircase at the Doges' Palace.” — 1914, Edward Verrall Lucas, A Wanderer in Venice, New York: Macmillan:
- A knitted design resembling a mosaic.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- intarsiate 83% match — Using intarsia (wood inlay, or knitted style). vs intarsia →
- tarsia 79% match — Intarsia. vs intarsia →
- inlaying 70% match — An inlaid pattern. vs intarsia →
- marquetry 67% match — A decorative technique in which veneers of wood, ivory, metal etc. are inlaid into a wooden surface to form intricate designs. vs intarsia →
- parquetry 63% match — The technique of applying wooden tiles or veneers to create a decorative geometrical pattern on floors, furniture etc. vs intarsia →
- certosina 63% match — A decorative technique, similar to marquetry, much used in the Italian Renaissance period. vs intarsia →
- linenfold 57% match — A form of decorative carving in wood panelling that imitates folded linen. vs intarsia →
- entrelac 55% match — A knitting technique used to create a textured diamond pattern, comprising interconnected squares on two different orientations. vs intarsia →