thumb|right|300px|Closeup of dentils, above a [[Corinthian order capital, Town Hall, Westport, Connecticut, U.S.]]
thumb|right|250px|Long view of same
A dentil (from Lat. dens, a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Revival, Greek Revival, Renaissance Revival, Second Empire, and Beaux-Arts architecture. Dentillation refers to use of a course of dentils.
History
Origin
The Roman architect Vitruvius (iv. 2) states that the dentil represents the end of a rafter (asser). It occurs in its most pronounced form in the Ionic temples of Asia Minor, the Lycian tombs, and the porticoes and tombs of Persia, where it clearly represents the reproduction in stone of timber construction. The earliest example is found carved into the rock of the tomb of Darius, c. 500 BC, reproducing the portico of his palace. Its first employment in Athens is in the cornice of the caryatid portico of the Erechtheum (480 BC). When subsequently introduced into the bed-mould of the cornice of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates it is much smaller in its dimensions. In the later temples of Ionia, as in the temple of Priene, the larger scale of the dentil is still retained.