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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

gingerbread.

A type of cake whose main flavoring is ginger.

11 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈd͡ʒɪn.(d͡)ʒəˌbɹɛd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈd͡ʒɪn.d͡ʒɚˌbɹɛd/General-American
  1. A type of cake whose main flavoring is ginger.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Something ersatz; something showy but insubstantial.

    countable · figuratively · obsolete · uncountable
  3. A flamboyant Victorian-era architectural style.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English gyngebred, gyngebrede, from Old French gingembras, gingimbrat (“preserved ginger”), from Medieval Latin *gingimbrātus (“gingered”, presumably referring to ginger that perhaps had a pharmaceutical use for some medicinal preparation), with the intrusive m added to gingiber, from Latin zingiber (“ginger”), of earlier Sanskrit origin, through Ancient Greek ζιγγίβερις (zingíberis). The third syllable was earlier confounded with bread, and the insertion of an r in the second syllable completed the semblance of a compound word: ginger + bread.

verb/ˈd͡ʒɪn.(d͡)ʒəˌbɹɛd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈd͡ʒɪn.d͡ʒɚˌbɹɛd/General-American
  1. To decorate or embellish in an ornate or intricate way.

    idiomatic · transitive · uncommon
Where this word comes from

From Middle English gyngebred, gyngebrede, from Old French gingembras, gingimbrat (“preserved ginger”), from Medieval Latin *gingimbrātus (“gingered”, presumably referring to ginger that perhaps had a pharmaceutical use for some medicinal preparation), with the intrusive m added to gingiber, from Latin zingiber (“ginger”), of earlier Sanskrit origin, through Ancient Greek ζιγγίβερις (zingíberis). The third syllable was earlier confounded with bread, and the insertion of an r in the second syllable completed the semblance of a compound word: ginger + bread.

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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.