locket
Americannoun
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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
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.
A diamond-studded locket swallowed by a New Zealand man who tried to steal it has been "recovered", police say.
From BBC • Dec. 4, 2025
I'm mostly watching for gay reasons, because the writing is good, and because I wear a locket around my neck with a photo of Kathryn Hahn inside of it.
From Salon • Sep. 19, 2024
That locket is presented at the Champions Dinner during Masters week.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2024
“In every photo, he just radiated with that smile,” his godmother Monique Vasquez said while wearing a locket with the younger Saldaña’s ashes.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 25, 2024
“Why? Where did it come from? What did Regulus have to do with it? Kreacher, sit up and tell me everything you know about that locket, and everything Regulus had to do with it!”
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
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.
