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.
Raven offers a few hypothetical examples—“Should I stay married? Buy a brownstone? Have a kid?”—that are uncomfortably close to the questions Nick’s friends are at the moment asking themselves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Being able to afford a $700-per-month brownstone apartment in a highly sought-after neighborhood on a columnist’s salary.
From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2026
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
The kids stilled and drank in the sight of the brownstone.
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
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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.