A rosette is a decoration or design shaped like a rose, with petals or ribbons arranged in a circular pattern radiating outward from the center. You've probably seen rosettes pinned to winners at horse shows or dog competitions: they're those fancy ribbons with multiple loops forming a flower shape, often with long tails hanging down and the place written in gold lettering at the center.

Rosettes appear in many places beyond prize ribbons. Architects carve stone rosettes into the ceilings of grand buildings, where they look like sculpted flowers blooming overhead. Furniture makers might add wooden rosettes where table legs meet the tabletop. Ancient craftspeople painted rosettes on pottery thousands of years ago, and you can still see these circular flower patterns in museums today.

In nature, some plants grow in a rosette pattern, with their leaves spreading out in a circle close to the ground, like a dandelion before it sends up its stem.