Dessert

//dɪˈzɝt// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The last course of a meal, consisting of fruit, sweet confections etc. countable, uncountable

    "I ordered hummus for a starter, a steak as the main course, and chocolate cake for dessert."

  2. 2
    a dish served as the last course of a meal wordnet
  3. 3
    A sweet dish or confection served as the last course of a meal. countable, uncountable

    "Trifle is a favourite dessert of the English, but rivalled by pavlova in Australia and New Zealand."

Synonyms

All synonyms
afterssweetafterclapaftercourseaftersambrosia

Example

More examples

"The dessert was made with whipped cream."

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.

Related phrases

dessert bardessert forkdessert grapedessert spoondessert winedessert-plate

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