bric-a-brac
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of bric-a-brac
1830–40; < French, Middle French: literally, at random, without rhyme or reason; gradational compound from elements of obscure origin
Explanation
Bric-a-brac is knickknacks: little objects without any purpose except decoration. Some people love to collect bric-a-brac. Do you know anyone who collects little unicorn figurines or other small knickknacks? Then you know someone who likes bric-a-brac. Bric-a-brac consists of little odds and ends crafted by artists. This is a mass noun: it's plural without adding an s, standing for all sorts of tawdry trinkets. The nice thing about bric-a-brac is you always have room for more since they’re tiny. An arts and crafts festival is a great place to find all sorts of bric-a-brac.
Vocabulary lists containing bric-a-brac
The Hiding Place
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The Summer of Lost Letters
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The Ice Cream Machine
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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.
Among the bric-a-brac are a hosiery stock card, old negatives and a birthday letter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2025
It is a realistic, down-to-earth police procedural that’s swarming with supernatural beings and lots of storytelling bric-a-brac.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2024
As Norwich observes, you can chance upon worthy material not just in your reading but also in overheard conversations, advertisements, even on souvenir bric-a-brac.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 15, 2022
A woman who found two portraits by a 20th Century British artist on a church bric-a-brac stall has described it as her "Fiona Bruce" moment.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2022
These appear to have been spread about, out of context, like titanic bric-a-brac, in a manner that would have struck the natives as highly irreverent—Egyptianizing instead of Egyptian.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
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.
