gingerbread
Americannoun
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a type of cake flavored with ginger and molasses.
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a rolled cookie similarly flavored, often cut in fanciful shapes, and sometimes frosted.
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elaborate, gaudy, or superfluous architectural ornamentation.
a series of gables embellished with gingerbread.
adjective
noun
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a moist brown cake, flavoured with ginger and treacle or syrup
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a rolled biscuit, similarly flavoured, cut into various shapes and sometimes covered with icing
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( as modifier )
gingerbread man
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an elaborate but unsubstantial ornamentation
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( as modifier )
gingerbread style of architecture
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Other Word Forms
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
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.
Vocabulary lists containing gingerbread
Brown
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National Cookie Day
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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.
He later signed to Sheeran's record label, Gingerbread Records, and has toured and collaborated with him on numerous occasions, even winning an Emmy alongside Sheeran for a song written for the Ted Lasso soundtrack.
From BBC • Mar. 13, 2026
“I have fireplaces flying forward,” said Olivia Cobian, the innkeeper at the Gingerbread Mansion, a bed-and-breakfast in the historic town of Ferndale, as sirens wailed in the background Thursday morning.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 5, 2024
“Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown” will not prompt these questions.
From Salon • Dec. 11, 2023
The iconic Gingerbread White House required 40 sheets of sugar cookie dough.
From Washington Times • Nov. 27, 2023
She couldn’t wait to show up on Gingerbread Island again.
From "Caterpillar Summer" by Gillian McDunn
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.
