brownstone
Americannoun
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a reddish-brown sandstone, used extensively as a building material.
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Also called brownstone front. a building, especially a row house, fronted with this stone.
adjective
noun
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a reddish-brown iron-rich sandstone used for building
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a house built of or faced with this stone
Etymology
Origin of brownstone
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.
Booth started up DFA in his Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., brownstone in 1981, after forays in indexing at Wells Fargo and A.G.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
Davidson is understood to still have a home base in Brooklyn in the form of a brownstone rental.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 16, 2026
For the architects, the descending bleachers constitute a “reverse stoop,” another monumentalized form, this time of the brownstone stoops that are the front-row seats to Harlem’s street life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
One form filed in 2001 regarding a Brooklyn brownstone bought for her family listed the property as having five units, but all the other pertinent forms stated correctly that it was four units.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2025
Up close, the buildings were more intimidating than they were from the brownstone roof.
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
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.
