Butterscotch

//ˈbʌtɚˌskɑt͡ʃ// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A hard candy made from butter, brown sugar, syrup and vanilla. uncountable, usually
  2. 2
    a hard brittle candy made with butter and brown sugar wordnet
  3. 3
    A sauce or syrup made of similar ingredients. uncountable, usually
  4. 4
    A light brown colour, like that of butterscotch candy. uncountable, usually
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of a light brown colour, like that of butterscotch candy. not-comparable
  2. 2
    Having the flavour of butterscotch. not-comparable

Synonyms

All synonyms
chocolatefudge

Etymology

From butter + scotch, with the second element deriving (not from scotch whiskey or Scotland, but) from Middle English scocchen (“to score, nick, cut”), in reference to how the candy is boiled and hardened and then usually scored to make breaking it apart easier. The word is usually said to have originally been a trademark of Parkinson's, who is claimed to have invented it.

Related phrases

brown sugarhard candy

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