dessert

Meaning

1. (countable, uncountable) The last course of a meal, consisting of fruit, sweet confections etc.
2. (countable, uncountable) A sweet dish or confection served as the last course of a meal.

Synonyms

sweet

pudding

afters

sweetmeat

cake

🍰

candy

🍬

confection

pie

🥧

pud

sherbet

snack

sweets

tapioca

wilderness

sweet food

fruit ice

blancmange

bush

confectionery

junket

marmalade

pastry

Translations

dessert

postre

Dessert

dessert

postres

Nachspeise

sobremesa

toetje

dessert

Nachtisch

nagerecht

επιδόρπιο

dolce

toespijs

Pronounced as (IPA)

/dɪˈzɜːt/

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French dessert, from desservir (“disserve”), from dés- (“dis-”) and servir (“serve”), thus literally meaning “removal of what has been served”.
Note: It was erroneously suggested (e.g. in "Glucose syrups: Technology and Applications" (Peter Hull, 2010)) that the word is derived from the name of Benjamin Delessert, the inventor of beet sugar. However, the term predates him by at least a century.