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Synonyms

kitsch

American  
[kich] / kɪtʃ /

noun

  1. something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste.

kitsch British  
/ kɪtʃ /

noun

    1. tawdry, vulgarized, or pretentious art, literature, etc, usually with popular or sentimental appeal

    2. ( as modifier )

      a kitsch plaster bust of Beethoven
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
kitsch Cultural  

  1. Works of art and other objects (such as furniture) that are meant to look costly but actually are in poor taste.

Discover More

Kitsch in literature and music is associated with sentimentalism as well as bad taste.

Other Word Forms

  • kitschy adjective

Etymology

Origin of kitsch

First recorded in 1925–30; from German, derivative of kitschen “to throw together (a work of art)”

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.

His awareness of culture expresses itself only in the most godawful kitsch.

From Salon • Mar. 28, 2026

The album is overstuffed, eccentric, kitsch, dramatic and a little bit exhausting.

From BBC • Mar. 26, 2026

The Robin Hood legend is one that can always stand up to a retelling, though remaking anything like the ’38 “Adventures of Robin Hood”—at least in the same tone of voice—would result in kitsch.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025

The extravagant kitsch monument in Rome, finished under Mussolini’s rule?

From Salon • Aug. 9, 2025

The truck stop was a wonderland of Southern kitsch.

From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner

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.