tracery

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   ornamental stone, wood, or metalwork forming interlacing ribs or branching patterns, especially in a window

   Delicate stone tracery divided the cathedral's tall Gothic window.

2. 2
   noun

   any delicate interlacing or branching pattern of lines

   Winter sunlight revealed the fine tracery of bare branches against the sky.

From trace + -ery. The architectural term arose for decorative work laid out from traced designs, especially the branching stone ribs of Gothic windows; it later broadened to any similarly delicate network of lines.

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