Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Tin-glazed earthenware that is often richly colored and decorated, especially an earthenware of this type produced in Italy.
  • noun Pottery made in imitation of this earthenware.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Decorative enameled pottery, especially that of Italy from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century.
  • noun As applied to modern pottery, a kind of ware which in effects of color partly imitates the pottery above defined, especially in large pieces used for architectural decoration, garden-seats, vases, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A kind of pottery, with opaque glazing and showy decoration, which reached its greatest perfection in Italy in the 16th century.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A fine Italian glazed earthenware, coated with opaque white enamel and ornamented with metallic colours
  • noun Any other kind of glazed coloured earthenware or faience

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun highly decorated earthenware with a glaze of tin oxide

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian maiolica, from Medieval Latin Māiōlica, Majorca (where it was made), alteration of Late Latin Māiōrica.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Majolica is an Anglicized version of the Italian maiolica. It is named after the Island of Majorca (formerly known as Maiolica), which once was a commerce center for work produced in Valencia, Spain.

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Examples

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  • "A typical late-nineteenth-century sideboard would also have displayed cut glass, examples of hand-painted French or German porcelain, 'antique' German or Italian glass, a German beer stein, a brass samovar, or a decorative piece of pottery—possibly Delft or majolica."

    —Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 68

    April 13, 2010