gingerbread

American  

[jin-jer-bred] / ˈdʒɪn dʒərˌbrɛd /

noun

1. a type of cake flavored with ginger and molasses.

2. a rolled cookie similarly flavored, often cut in fanciful shapes, and sometimes frosted.

3. elaborate, gaudy, or superfluous architectural ornamentation.

   a series of gables embellished with gingerbread.

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adjective

1. heavily, gaudily, and superfluously ornamented.

   a gingerbread style of architecture.

gingerbread British  

/ ˈdʒɪndʒəˌbrɛd /

noun

1. a moist brown cake, flavoured with ginger and treacle or syrup

2. 1. a rolled biscuit, similarly flavoured, cut into various shapes and sometimes covered with icing

   2. ( as modifier )

      gingerbread man

3. 1. an elaborate but unsubstantial ornamentation

   2. ( as modifier )

      gingerbread style of architecture

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Other Word Forms

• gingerbready
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of gingerbread

1250–1300; Middle English gingebreed (influenced by breed bread), variant of gingebrad, -brat ginger paste < Old French gingembras, -brat preserved ginger < Medieval Latin *gingi ( m ) brātum a medicinal preparation (neuter past participle), derivative of Latin gingiber ginger

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Explanation

Gingerbread is a rich, spicy cake or cookie. Some people mark the Christmas season by making gingerbread houses covered in icing and candy. The key ingredient in this delicious treat is the spice called ginger. The original meaning of the word gingerbread was "preserved ginger," and then it came to mean "ginger candy made with honey and spices." It was some time in the 15th century that what we now know as gingerbread was first invented: a rich, flavorful cookie or cake full of ginger and other spices and sweetened with molasses.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gingerbread

The only way to really save the bakery is to have a life-size gingerbread house competition.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

For the tourists' benefit, Vlkolinec puts on traditional craft demonstrations, from sewing folk costumes and gingerbread decorating to mowing and haymaking.

From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026

But she only fell in love with the brand when she saw a gingerbread house plushie on the Chinese social media app RedNote.

From BBC ● Jan. 3, 2026

And each year, when the twinkling holiday lights fade to a hazy glow and the gingerbread is nothing more than crumbs, I thank copyright law for giving me my favorite Christmas tradition: Ebony Scrooge.

From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2025

Once the cookies were done, she would talk in what we called her gingerbread voice and pretend to be the characters on the cookie sheet.

From "March Forward, Girl" by Melba Pattillo Beals

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Related Words

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• special
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