gadget
Americannoun
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
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.
Gadget makers are locking essential features behind paywalls.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 7, 2025
“We followed how the first Gadget was designed and created the device, and that’s what you see in the film,” says De Jong.
From National Geographic • Jul. 28, 2023
Gadget the detector dog is a celebrity with her own Facebook page: you can follow her as she checks incoming boats for rodent stowaways.
From BBC • Jun. 26, 2023
The chairman of FBH is Jean Chalopin, who, along with being a co-creator of cartoon cop Inspector Gadget in the 1980s, is the chairman of Deltec Bank, which, like FTX, is based in the Bahamas.
From New York Times • Nov. 23, 2022
“After all this is over, you two should go into business together. Mr. Gadget and Kid Gadget!”
From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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.
