locket
Americannoun
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lockets
plural
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a small case for a miniature portrait, a lock of hair, or other keepsake, usually worn on a necklace.
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the uppermost mount of a scabbard.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of locket
1325–75; Middle English lokat cross-bar in a framework < Anglo-French loquet, diminutive of loc latch < Middle English. See lock 1, -et
Explanation
A locket is a small piece of jewelry that's worn on a necklace and opens to reveal a small photograph or memento inside. Your grandmother's silver locket might not be worth a lot of money, but it probably has a lot of sentimental value to you. Lockets are usually round, oval, or heart-shaped, snapping open and closed and containing a picture of a loved one or a favorite pet, or — in the old days — a lock of someone's hair. These little cases aren't named for hair locks, though, but instead get their name from the Old French loquet, "door-handle" or "latch," for the way their covers move on a hinge and close securely, like a door.
Vocabulary lists containing locket
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:
Saqib wears a locket shaped like a map of pre-partition Punjab around his neck and plans to visit Lahore.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2026
A New Zealand man has been charged for theft after he allegedly stole a diamond-studded locket in a rather unusual way - by swallowing it.
From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2025
But Mira loves it anyway and also has a special gift for Violet — a locket with a violet inside.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2025
For my 40th birthday last April, she gave me a golden heart locket with the top of the tooth glued inside.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2024
Lord Roke could see his dismay: the object of his search was the locket on the gold chain around Mrs. Coulter’s neck.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
Redlands business Precious Creature initially only offered full-body taxidermy of pets until customers started suggesting other ideas, such as lockets containing patches of fur and cat-tail necklaces.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2025
Prince Albert gave her the gift of a bracelet with eight lockets attached to it - each containing a lock of hair from one of their eight children.
From BBC ● May 28, 2022
She eventually expanded into jewelry, offering oval filigree lockets, enamel vermeil zodiac charms and stackable gold bands that riff on 15th-century poesy rings.
From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2022
Stephanie Mercedes dangles dozens of antique lockets in memory of Argentina’s “disappeared” and has scored the installation to the chants of mothers who protested in Buenos Aires.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 14, 2019
How lumpy our bed was with all her lockets and bangles and her garnet ring.
From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck
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.
