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Horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture

the architectural feature

In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian cornice meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, 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. A projecting cornice on a building has the function of throwing rainwater free of its walls. In residential building practice, this function is handled by projecting gable ends, roof eaves and gutters. However, house eaves may also be called "cornices" if they are finished with decorative moulding. In this sense, while most cornices are also eaves (overhanging the sides of the building), not all eaves are usually considered cornices. Eaves are primarily functional and not necessarily decorative, while cornices have a decorative aspect. A building's projecting cornice may appear to be heavy and hence in danger of falling, particularly on commercial buildings, but often may actually be very light, made of pressed metal.

In Ancient Greek architecture and its successors using the classical orders in the tradition of classical architecture, the cornice is the topmost element of the entablature, which consists (from top to bottom) of the cornice, the frieze, and the architrave. Where a triangular pediment is above the entablature, the cornice continues all round the triangle, the two sides being "raking cornices". The vertical space below the cornice is typically decorated by dentils (little teeth), or the larger modillons. The soffit, or horizontal space under a projecting cornice, may be elaborately carved with vegetal designs.

A rake is an architectural term for an eave or cornice which runs along the gable of the roof of a modern residential structure. It may also be called a sloping cornice, a raking cornice. The trim and rafters at this edge are called rakes, rake board, rake fascia, verge boards, barge boards or verge or barge rafters. It is a sloped timber on the outside facing edge of a roof running between the ridge and the eave. On a typical house, any gable will have two rakes, one on each sloped side. The rakes are often supported by a series of lookouts (sometimes also called strong arms) and may be trimmed with a rake fascia board (which is not a true fascia) on the outside facing edge and a rake soffit along the bottom.

The cornices of a modern residential building will usually be one of three types: a box cornice, a close or closed cornice, or an open cornice.

Box cornices enclose the cornice of the building with what is essentially a long narrow box. A box cornice may further be divided into either the narrow box cornice or the wide box cornice type. A narrow box cornice is one in which "the projection of the rafter serves as a nailing surface for the soffit board as well as the fascia trim." The cavetto cornice, often forming less than a quarter circle, influenced Egypt's neighbours and as well as appearing in early Ancient Greek architecture, it is seen in Syria and ancient Iran, for example at the Tachara palace of Darius I at Persepolis, completed in 486 BC. Inspired by this precedent, it was then revived by Ardashir I (r. 224–41 AD), the founder of the Sasanian dynasty. The cavetto took the place of the cymatium in many Etruscan temples, often painted with vertical "tongue" patterns, and combined with the distinctive "Etruscan round moulding", often painted with scales. A typical example may be seen at the reconstructed Etruscan temple at Villa Giulia. Additional more obscure varieties of cornice include the architrave cornice, bracketed cornice, and modillion cornice.

A cornice return is an architectural detail that occurs where the horizontal cornice of a roof connects to the rake of a gable.

The term cornice may also be used to describe a form of hard window treatment along the top edge of a window. When used in this context, a cornice represents a board (usually wood) placed above the window to conceal the mechanism for opening and closing drapes. If covered in a layer of cloth and given padding, it is sometimes called a soft cornice rather than a hard cornice.