doodad

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

doodad

/ˈduːdæd/

Where it comes from

Unknown; attested since the 1880s. Compare earlier daud (“a piece of something”), later doohickey (“a thing (whose name one cannot recall)”), dialectal dad, dadge (“a large piece, chunk”).

noun doodads · doo-dad · dodad · do-dad · dodab

Used to refer to something whose name one cannot recall: an unspecified device, gadget, part, or thing. My mom has a clever doodad for peeling oranges.
Similar: doodah, Sorted by number of Google hits, widget, hickey, gizmo, thingy, gimmick, thingie, jigger, gismo, gubbins, whatsit

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"doodad." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/doodad. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

doodad. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/doodad

Chicago

"doodad." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/doodad.

BibTeX

@misc{doodad_2026,
  title = {doodad},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/doodad},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}