keepsake
Americannoun
-
keepsakes
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of keepsake
Explanation
A keepsake is an object that has sentimental value, like a locket that belonged to your grandmother. In one of the Batman movies, Bruce Wayne keeps the pearls his mother wore the day she was murdered. Those pearls are a keepsake: something that has great meaning because of its association with a person. Many parents keep pictures their kids drew as keepsakes. If you loved a job, you might have a keepsake from it. Souvenirs from fun vacations are keepsakes. A keepsake is something we keep for the sake of the people and events we want to always remember.
Vocabulary lists containing keepsake
Crenshaw
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Free Lunch
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Charlotte's Web
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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.
See Examples For:
Hurt and in desperate need of her friend, Andie goes to see Iona to ask for her ruffly pink prom dress, a keepsake she promised Andie if ever she wanted it.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2026
When the next mission to the International Space Station blasts off from Florida next week, a special keepsake will be hitching a ride: a small stuffed rabbit.
From Barron's ● Feb. 8, 2026
She had treasured the pan through the years as “a keepsake of our love.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
Books were often created in the 19th Century to punish executed prisoners or by doctors who wanted a keepsake.
From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2025
I still have that postcard in my keepsake box in the back of my closet.
From "P.S. I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy
Roberto Velasco, 84, brought a small suitcase and a hard disc containing copies of old family letters and keepsakes from his family in Chile over the 50 years he has spent in Spain.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
Celeb spotting, stolen keepsakes and an "incredible hangover" – this is what BBC Radio 1's Greg James has revealed about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Nearby were more family artifacts: photographs, keepsakes, fragments of lives divided across borders.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
People have been lining up at Costco and Walmart to buy gold bars and digging through their jewelry boxes to turn keepsakes into cash.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
I was hoping there’d be some keepsakes inside, something of Nan’s that I could hold on to.
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
