gadget
gad·get/ɡæd͡ʒ.ɪt/noun
gadget is spelled G-A-D-G-E-T: 6 letters and 2 syllables (gad·get). It appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,005th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, gadget means “Any device or machine, especially one whose name cannot be recalled, often either clever or complicated” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gadget is gadgets.
How many letters and syllables are in gadget?
| Letters | 6: G-A-D-G-E-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: gad·get |
| In writing | 2.8 times per million words; the 16,005th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is gadget?
Gadget appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,005th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce gadget?
- UK /ɡæd͡ʒ.ɪt/
- US /ɡæd͡ʒ.ɪt/
- /ɡæd͡ʒ.ət/
Gadget has 2 syllables, split gad·get in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-gadget.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with gadget?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as gadget.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: tagged.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of gadget
- gadgets plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does gadget mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
obsoleteA thing whose name cannot be remembered; thingamajig, doohickey.
- 2
Any device or machine, especially one whose name cannot be recalled, often either clever or complicated.
He bought a neat new gadget for shredding potatoes.
- 3
informalAny consumer electronics product.
- 4
A sequence of machine code instructions crafted as part of an exploit that attempts to divert execution to a memory location chosen by the attacker.
A Spectre gadget was found in the Linux kernel's implementation of system interrupts.
- 5
A technique for converting a part of one problem to an equivalent part of another problem, used in constructing reductions.
We reduce an instance of 3-SAT to an instance of bird-flock-optimization, using a gadget that converts each conjunctive Boolean clause to a group of birds.
- 6
A spring clip attached to the end of a punty in order to grasp the foot of a glass without leaving a bullion while finishing the bowl.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Gadget in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense any device or machine:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | gadget |
| German | Apparat, Gadget, Gerät |
| Portuguese | engenhoca, apetrecho |
| Spanish | artilugio, aparato |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does gadget come from?
Unknown. First used in print by Robert Brown in 1886 (see quote in definition section). Might come from French gâchette or gagée, or from the French family name Gaget, an industrialist who produced promotional gadgets in collaboration with the project to build the statue of Liberty.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).