Added 9 October 2026
sugar
/ˈʃʊɡə/ noun
In Latin: saccharum Wiktionary
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about sugar at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- A food consisting of small, sweet crystals, principally of sucrose, obtained from sugar cane or sugar beet and used as sweetener and preservative.
- Any specific variety of sugar.
- Any of various small, water-soluble carbohydrates such as are used by organisms for energy and various other purposes.
verb
-
To add sugar to; to sweeten with sugar.
John heavily sugars his coffee.
-
To make (something unpleasant) seem less so.
She has a gift for sugaring what would otherwise be harsh words.
- In making maple sugar, to complete the process of boiling down the syrup till it is thick enough to crystallize; to approach or reach the state of granulation; with the preposition off.
interjection
Origin
Inherited from Middle English sugre, borrowed from Old French çucre, borrowed from Old Italian zucchero, borrowed from Arabic سُكَّر (sukkar), borrowed from Middle Persian 𐭱𐭪𐭥 (šakar), borrowed from Gandhari 𐨭𐨐𐨪 (śakara), from Sanskrit शर्क॑रा (śárkarā), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *śárkaraH, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ćárkaraH, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱorkeh₂ (“gravel”). Akin to Ancient Greek κρόκη (krókē, “pebble”), whence the words crocodile and krokodil are derived. Doublet of jaggery and sucro-. The verb is from Middle English sugren, from the noun.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)