homemade
Americanadjective
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made or prepared at home, locally, or by the maker's own efforts.
The restaurant's pastry is homemade. Breakfast at the farmhouse always meant homemade preserves.
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made in one's own country; domestic.
I prefer a homemade car to one of those foreign models.
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made, contrived, or assembled by oneself; not professionally made or done; amateurish.
the plain look of homemade furniture.
Etymology
Origin of homemade
Explanation
Something that's homemade is created by a real person, usually in their own house, rather than being mass-produced. Your dad's homemade apple pie is the best you've ever tasted. Your famous homemade chocolate chip cookies are likely to be a bigger hit at the bake sale than a box of ginger snaps dumped on a plate. And the homemade sweater you got for your birthday might be a little itchy, but it's special because your aunt lovingly knitted it herself, using yarn in your favorite color. Homemade things aren't just made at home — they're also usually made with more care than goods produced in factories.
Vocabulary lists containing homemade
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Born in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk showed his talents for entrepreneurship early, going door-to-door with his brother selling homemade chocolate Easter eggs and developing his first computer game at the age of 12.
From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026
Most homemade creamy dressings have the same problem: they’re flat.
From Salon • May 28, 2026
As Debbie sat at the register inside, helping a steady flow of the shop’s final patrons, protesters gathered behind the building, clutching homemade posters and waiting for Jeremy to speak.
From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2026
“I don’t have enough, otherwise I would share them with you, but I did bring in for my team some homemade tamales,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 10, 2026
He’d hang a copper wire out the window facing the courthouse, connect the homemade antenna to his shortwave radio, and exchange coded messages with Moscow.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
