Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
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)”

Explanation

Kitsch is art that's garish, nostalgic, and very low-brow. Some people who love the aesthetics of souvenir culture think kitsch is really cool, while others think it's in very poor taste. Kitsch is a German word that's been adopted into English, meaning "worthless, trashy art," or the quality of that art. A ceramic figurine of a puppy with sad eyes is pretty kitsch, as is a velvet Elvis painting. Of course some people think that kitsch is really beautiful and fill their homes with stuff that other people consider trashy souvenirs. If your painting teacher tells you your portraits are kitsch, that's probably not a compliment.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing kitsch

2015 Spelling Bee - Words from Round 2

Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!

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

Not everything needs to be kitsch, dumbed down, or turned into a competitive status symbol, lest anyone take that as another excuse to care even less about the wrong things.

From Salon • Jan. 11, 2026

“Spam, fluff, clickbait, churnalism, kitsch — slop: These are all ways to describe mass-produced, low-quality content.”

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 5, 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.