If a surface is embossed, it has a pattern that stands up from it. You can see the shape and usually feel it too. An embossed wedding card, an embossed stamp on leather, embossed numbers on a bank card — the raised bits are the point. This is the form students will meet most often, more than the verb emboss. It describes the thing after the work is done. Shops use it as a selling word: “embossed cover,” “embossed lettering.” Though actually, not every fancy or thick decoration counts. Paint that sits on top, a glued-on jewel, or a picture printed flat is not embossed. Embossed means the material itself was pressed or stamped so that part of it rises. If you cannot feel a raised shape, the word is probably being used loosely, the way shops sometimes dress up ordinary printing.