paraphernalia

CEFRC1

/ˌpæɹəfəˈneɪli.ə/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A collection of equipment or items used for a particular activity.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Objects that a married woman owns, such as clothing and jewellery, apart from her dowry.

Examples

  • Police found drug paraphernalia in Tom's flat and took him into custody.

  • Sami pulled out his drug paraphernalia.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
3
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3
Synonyms
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meaning

  1. Miscellaneous items, especially the set of equipment required for a particular activity.

More examples

In context

  • He has an impressive collection of bicycling paraphernalia, but he doesn't ride very often anymore.

  • drug paraphernalia

  • Then the boys arrived, with their camping paraphernalia, and in such bubbling good spirits that the girls were infected with them, for they had become rather lonesome of late.

Synonyms

Quick test

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He packed all his camping blank, including the tent and cooking stove.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Borrowed from Medieval Latin paraphernālia (“goods which a wife brings over and above her dowry”), use as noun (short for paraphernālia bona (“paraphernal goods”)) of neuter plural of paraphernālis, from Late Latin parapherna + Latin -ālis (suffix forming adjectives), from Ancient Greek παράφερνα (parápherna), a compound of παρά (pará, “beside”) + φερνή (phernḗ, “dowry”). In the propertied classes, a dowry was placed under the control of the husband, while the paraphernalia which she brought with her remained the wife’s property.