Heirloom

//ˈɛəɹ.lum// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A valued possession that has been passed down through the generations.

    "Morning rehearsal starts at eleven. Wheeler takes a taxi from the hotel to the venue, bringing his tuxedo and his violin with him. His violin is an heirloom, more than a hundred years old, and while he's touring it never leaves his sight. (His tuxedo is just a tuxedo.)"

  2. 2
    something that has been in a family for generations wordnet
  3. 3
    An old crop variety that has been passed down through generations of farmers by seed saving and cultivation, in contrast to modern cultivars used in large-scale agriculture.

    "My last trip to the market barely yielded enough unmealy heirlooms for a couple of salads."

  4. 4
    (law) any property that is considered by law or custom as inseparable from an inheritance is inherited with that inheritance wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
antiquebequeathalbequestbirthrightborough-englishcoheirship

Example

More examples

"I found some interesting heirloom tomatoes at the farmer's market."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English heirlome (“heirloom”, literally “a tool or article passed to one's heirs”), equivalent to heir + loom.

Related phrases

heir apparentlarge scalepass down

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.