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Synonyms

brainchild

American  
[brayn-chahyld] / ˈbreɪnˌtʃaɪld /
Or brain-child,

noun

  • brainchildren
    plural
  1. a product of one's creative work or thought.


brainchild British  
/ ˈbreɪnˌtʃaɪld /

noun

  1. informal an idea or plan produced by creative thought; invention

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of brainchild

First recorded in 1880–85; brain + child


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:

The venue, the brainchild of New York Knicks owner James Dolan, found a successful formula pairing high-tech lights and sounds with a lineup of broadly appealing musical acts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

And with Fielder as the film’s brainchild, Holmes as its complex subject, and a three-hour runtime, even a nomination would be exactly the kind of genre-and-expectation-defying push the Oscars is seeking in an uncertain future.

From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026

The law change for a red card was the brainchild of Fifa president Infantino, who wanted something which would have "a deterrent effect" at the World Cup.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

The Cadiz project was the brainchild of British-born Keith Brackpool, who had a checkered record as an investment promoter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

The upgrade was the brainchild of the eminent astronomer George Ellery Hale.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

These brainchildren live in the space of abstract ideas, not in real space.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 11, 2021

All his life he was given to intense periods of noodling, forswearing meals, sleeping at his desk, testing and retesting his ideas, and shepherding his favored brainchildren to manufacture, marketability and profit.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 27, 2019

Fiasco is but one of many actor-driven companies that have been the brainchildren of Master of Fine Arts graduates.

From New York Times ● Dec. 11, 2015

All of them were the brainchildren of Jobs, a technologist whose relentless perfectionism and long experience helped set the technology agenda for decades.

From Chicago Tribune ● Oct. 8, 2011

Other hobgoblins were the brainchildren of self-proclaimed experts who cooked up idiosyncratic theories of how language ought to behave, usually with a puritanical undercurrent in which people’s natural inclinations must be a form of dissoluteness.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

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