dessert

Meaning

1. The last course of a meal, consisting of fruit, sweet confections etc.
2. 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

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.