memorabilia
Americanplural noun
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memorabile
singular
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mementos; souvenirs.
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matters or events worthy to be remembered; points worthy of note.
plural noun
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memorable events or things
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objects connected with famous people or events
Etymology
Origin of memorabilia
1800–10; noun use of Latin memorābilia things to be remembered, neuter plural of memorābilis memorable
Explanation
The noun memorabilia describes items that remind you of a certain event or time period. Parents who save every drawing and report card their children bring home are collecting memorabilia for the future. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt? That t-shirt is memorabilia. Memorabilia refers to anything that commemorates an event. It shows you were there — you have the t-shirt to prove it. But t-shirts didn't even exist in 1806, the year memorabilia was coined from the Latin word memorare, meaning "to bring to mind." You save memorabilia to help you remember, or jog your memory.
Vocabulary lists containing memorabilia
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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:
About 80 guitars are included in the auction, alongside amplifiers, gold and silver records, posters, memorabilia and a collection of harmonicas.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
A “yard sale” that sounds like a giant casting off of crappy memorabilia a week away from the trash can.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
The 54-year-old has spent years collecting revolutionary memorabilia and reveres Castro as "the master."
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
“Any time you’re putting a nuclear reactor in a hole, it’s kind of scary,” he said in his office, surrounded by Kansas City Royals memorabilia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
The place was vintage Woolf, decorated floor to ceiling in flamboyant cowboy memorabilia.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
But if he has them not, I shall only exclaim a phrase out of Terence's "Andria": "Hoccine credibile est aut memorabile Tanta vecordia innata cuiquam ut siet, Ut malis gaudeant?"
From Secret Diplomatic History of The Eighteenth Century by Karl Marx
And therefore among all modest and honest persons it is thought a shame to offer violence or iniurie to a woman: in which respect Virgil saith, Nullum memorabile nomen fœminea in pœna est.
From Discovery of Witches The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster by Thomas Potts
Beyond this, on the left, the base of the famous statue of Domitian has been discovered as described by Statius: "Ipse loci custos, cujus sacrata vorago, Famosusque lacus nomen memorabile servat."
From Walks in Rome by Augustus J. C. Hare
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.
