gadget
Americannoun
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gadgets
plural
noun
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a small mechanical device or appliance
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any object that is interesting for its ingenuity or novelty rather than for its practical use
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gadget
1850–55; origin uncertain; compare French gâchette the catch of a lock, sear of a gunlock
Explanation
A gadget is a tool or device, especially one that works remarkably well for a specific task. Your dad's favorite kitchen gadget might be his special knife that cuts vegetables into spirals. The remote control your sister rigs up to the Christmas tree is a gadget, and your camping tool that folds out into various knives, corkscrews, and scissors is another kind of gadget. The original spelling was gadjet, and it's thought to have originated in the 1850's as sailors' slang, meaning any mechanism or ship part that either lacked a name or whose name had been forgotten. It may be rooted in the French gâchette, "piece of a mechanism."
Vocabulary lists containing gadget
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney
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The Ingenious Lexicon of Invention
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The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle
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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.
See Examples For:
He was open to all kinds of ideas, including a dental-flossing gadget that went nowhere and a successful heart defibrillator.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Small artificial intelligence models may be only months away from being able to behave like a computer worm, copying themselves from one internet-connected gadget to the next without human help, AI giant Anthropic said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
That’s often where the messaging lies in this gray area: pay a few hundred dollars for this wellness gadget to catch things before they turn into five-figure hospital bills.
From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2026
A gadget only a dentist could love — a $499 toothbrush with AI and a camera.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026
If you practice a bit, you can get to the point where you can record accurately without taking the little gadget out of your pocket.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
Anthropic's warning that AI-powered "worms" could soon spread across smart gadgets is the latest in a series of studies showing how artificial intelligence could supercharge self-spreading malware.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
Most of the time, it’s a really pleasant garden, where accessories automatically pair to devices and data syncs seamlessly across your gadgets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
And I don’t think that was because of the ships, the gadgets or the aliens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
"Although the Japanese like playing with gadgets such as smartphones, digital literacy is low here," he says.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
“What kind of new gadgets and gizmos do you guys think Mr. Lemoncello has added to his library?” asked Mrs. Yunghans.
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
