gadget
Americannoun
noun
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a small mechanical device or appliance
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any object that is interesting for its ingenuity or novelty rather than for its practical use
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gadget
1850–55; origin uncertain; compare French gâchette the catch of a lock, sear of a gunlock
Explanation
A gadget is a tool or device, especially one that works remarkably well for a specific task. Your dad's favorite kitchen gadget might be his special knife that cuts vegetables into spirals. The remote control your sister rigs up to the Christmas tree is a gadget, and your camping tool that folds out into various knives, corkscrews, and scissors is another kind of gadget. The original spelling was gadjet, and it's thought to have originated in the 1850's as sailors' slang, meaning any mechanism or ship part that either lacked a name or whose name had been forgotten. It may be rooted in the French gâchette, "piece of a mechanism."
Vocabulary lists containing gadget
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney
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The Ingenious Lexicon of Invention
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The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle
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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.
If this is what fathers want, and it is no harder to give than a gadget, why do we all have “#1 Dad” socks?
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 17, 2026
Snap's core audience of younger consumers "rarely have this sort of money to spend on a single gadget," he said.
From BBC • Jun. 17, 2026
His gadget also makes his targets super sweaty.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026
But what kind of gadget people will use isn't too important, he added, because "the agent isn't tied to the device".
From Barron's • Jun. 1, 2026
“Oh. I do,” Velia said, reaching into her pocket and unfolding a blade out of a complicated gadget that looked like twenty tiny tools in one.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
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.
