Cornice vs. Frieze — What's the Difference?

In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian cornice meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element – the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the top edge of a pedestal or along the top of an interior wall. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown, as in crown moulding atop an interior wall or above kitchen cabinets or a bookcase.

In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes.

A horizontal molded projection that crowns or completes a building or wall.

A broad horizontal band of sculpted or painted decoration, especially on a wall near the ceiling

The uppermost part of an entablature.

Heavy, coarse woollen cloth with a nap, usually on one side only.

A strip of molding that runs along the upper part of a wall just below the ceiling.

A plain or decorated horizontal part of an entablature between the architrave and cornice.

An ornamental horizontal molding or frame used to conceal rods, picture hooks, or other devices.

A decorative horizontal band, as along the upper part of a wall in a room.

An overhanging mass of windblown snow on a ridge or the crest of a mountain.

A coarse, shaggy woolen cloth with an uncut nap.

To supply, decorate, or finish with or as if with a cornice.

A dense, low-pile surface, as in carpeting, resembling such cloth. In both senses also called frisé.

(architectural element) A horizontal architectural element of a building, projecting forward from the main walls, originally used as a means of directing rainwater away from the building's walls.

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

A decorative element applied at the topmost part of the wall of a room, as with a crown molding.

(architecture) That part of the entablature of an order which is between the architrave and cornice. It is a flat member or face, either uniform or broken by triglyphs, and often enriched with figures and other ornaments of sculpture.

A decorative element at the topmost portion of certain pieces of furniture, as with a highboy.

Any sculptured or richly ornamented band in a building or, by extension, in rich pieces of furniture.

An overhanging edge of snow on a ridge or the crest of a mountain and along the sides of gullies.

A banner with a series of pictures.

(transitive) To furnish or decorate with a cornice.

(transitive) To make a nap on (cloth); to friz.

Any horizontal, molded or otherwise decorated projection which crowns or finishes the part to which it is affixed; as, the cornice of an order, pedestal, door, window, or house.

To put a frieze on.

A decorative framework to conceal curtain fixtures at the top of a window casing

That part of the entablature of an order which is between the architrave and cornice. It is a flat member or face, either uniform or broken by triglyphs, and often enriched with figures and other ornaments of sculpture.

A molding at the corner between the ceiling and the top of a wall

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

The topmost projecting part of an entablature

An architectural ornament consisting of a horizontal sculptured band between the architrave and the cornice

Furnish with a cornice

A heavy woolen fabric with a long nap