gingerbread

American  

[jin-jer-bred] / ˈdʒɪn dʒərˌbrɛd /

noun

1. a type of cake flavored with ginger and molasses.

2. a rolled cookie similarly flavored, often cut in fanciful shapes, and sometimes frosted.

3. elaborate, gaudy, or superfluous architectural ornamentation.

   a series of gables embellished with gingerbread.

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adjective

1. heavily, gaudily, and superfluously ornamented.

   a gingerbread style of architecture.

gingerbread British  

/ ˈdʒɪndʒəˌbrɛd /

noun

1. a moist brown cake, flavoured with ginger and treacle or syrup

2. 1. a rolled biscuit, similarly flavoured, cut into various shapes and sometimes covered with icing

   2. ( as modifier )

      gingerbread man

3. 1. an elaborate but unsubstantial ornamentation

   2. ( as modifier )

      gingerbread style of architecture

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Other Word Forms

• gingerbready adjective

Etymology

Origin of gingerbread

1250–1300; Middle English gingebreed (influenced by breed bread), variant of gingebrad, -brat ginger paste < Old French gingembras, -brat preserved ginger < Medieval Latin *gingi ( m ) brātum a medicinal preparation (neuter past participle), derivative of Latin gingiber ginger

Explanation

Gingerbread is a rich, spicy cake or cookie. Some people mark the Christmas season by making gingerbread houses covered in icing and candy. The key ingredient in this delicious treat is the spice called ginger. The original meaning of the word gingerbread was "preserved ginger," and then it came to mean "ginger candy made with honey and spices." It was some time in the 15th century that what we now know as gingerbread was first invented: a rich, flavorful cookie or cake full of ginger and other spices and sweetened with molasses.

Example Sentences

Think gingerbread men, only soft, chubby, and less fearful.

From Salon • Feb. 5, 2026

"The festival doesn't mean a lot to me... But I always like the sight of gingerbread houses," she says.

From BBC • Jan. 3, 2026

But in the meantime, seasonal enthusiasm for the house could be satisfied by a gingerbread facsimile thereof that was open to the public in Hollywood.

From MarketWatch • Dec. 29, 2025

Forged from the spicy gingerbread dough in our recipe below, the resulting centerpiece—or flurry of individual snowflakes, if you prefer—is edible and visually enticing.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025

She knew some famous American foods had molasses in them, like baked beans and gingerbread.

From "I Survived the Great Molasses Flood, 1919" by Lauren Tarshis

Related Words

• added
• additional
• ancillary
• auxiliary
• extraneous
• extraordinary
• fresh
• further
• leftover
• new
• other
• special
• supplemental
• supplementary
• unnecessary
• unused