baroque

Baroque describes something ornate, elaborate, or extravagantly detailed—often to the point of excess.

The term comes from art history, where it names a 17th-century European style known for dramatic ornamentation, curved forms, and grandeur.

Applied more loosely, baroque suggests anything overly complicated or florid: The tax code has grown baroque over the decades.

Her baroque prose style exhausted readers. (Capitalized Baroque refers specifically to the historical artistic period.)