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gewgaw.

A showy trifle, a toy; a showy trinket, ornament or decoration.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡjuːɡɔː/UK/ˈɡ(j)uɡɔ/General-American/ˈɡ(j)uɡɑ/General-American, cot-caught-merger
  1. A showy trifle, a toy; a showy trinket, ornament or decoration.

Where this word comes from

From earlier gugaw, gygaw, from Middle English givegove (“gewgaw, trifle”), a reduplication of Middle English give, geove (“gift”), from Old English giefu, geofu, geafu (“gift”), from Proto-Germanic *gebō (“gift”). Compare Icelandic gyligjöf (“showy gifts, gewgaw”). More at give.

adj/ˈɡjuːɡɔː/UK/ˈɡ(j)uɡɔ/General-American/ˈɡ(j)uɡɑ/General-American, cot-caught-merger
  1. Showy; unreal; pretentious.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From earlier gugaw, gygaw, from Middle English givegove (“gewgaw, trifle”), a reduplication of Middle English give, geove (“gift”), from Old English giefu, geofu, geafu (“gift”), from Proto-Germanic *gebō (“gift”). Compare Icelandic gyligjöf (“showy gifts, gewgaw”). More at give.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.