sugar

English Online Dictionary. What means sugar‎? What does sugar mean?

English

• Sugar in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Alternative forms

• shugar (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English sugre, sucre, from Middle French sucre, from Old French çucre (circa 13th century), from Old Italian zucchero (or another vernacular of Italy), from Arabic سُكَّر (sukkar), from Persian شکر (šakar), from Middle Persian [script needed] (škl), 𐫢𐫞𐫡 (šqr /⁠šakar⁠/), from Sanskrit शर्करा (śárkarā, “ground or candied sugar", originally "grit, gravel”). Akin to Ancient Greek κρόκη (krókē, “pebble”). Doublet of jaggery and sucro-.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃʊɡə(ɹ)/
• (General American) enPR: sho͝ogʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈʃʊɡɚ/
• Rhymes: -ʊɡə(ɹ)

Noun

sugar (countable and uncountable, plural sugars)

1. (uncountable) Sucrose in the form of small crystals, obtained from sugar cane or sugar beet and used to sweeten food and drink.
2. (countable) A specific variety of sugar.
3. (countable, chemistry) Any of various small carbohydrates that are used by organisms to store energy.

   Hypernyms: see Thesaurus:carbohydrate
4. (countable) A small serving of this substance (typically about one teaspoon), used to sweeten a drink.
5. (countable) A term of endearment.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sweetheart
6. (uncountable, slang) Affection shown by kisses or kissing.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:buss
7. (chiefly southern US, slang, uncountable) Effeminacy in a male, often implying homosexuality.
8. (uncountable, informal) Diabetes.
9. (dated) Anything resembling sugar in taste or appearance, especially in chemistry.
10. Compliment or flattery used to disguise or render acceptable something obnoxious; honeyed or soothing words.
11. (US, slang, uncountable) Heroin.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:heroin

12. (US, slang, uncountable, dated) Money.
13. (programming) Syntactic sugar.

Hyponyms

Meronyms

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

Verb

sugar (third-person singular simple present sugars, present participle sugaring, simple past and past participle sugared)

1. (transitive) To add sugar to; to sweeten with sugar.
2. (transitive) To make (something unpleasant) seem less so.
3. (US, Canada, regional) 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.
4. (entomology) To apply sugar to trees or plants in order to catch moths.
5. (programming, transitive) To rewrite (source code) using syntactic sugar.
6. (transitive) To compliment (a person).
7. To remove hair using a paste of sugar, water, and lemon juice.

Synonyms

• (add sugar to): sweeten
• (make less unpleasant): sweeten, sugar-coat

Derived terms

Translations

Interjection

sugar

1. (minced oath) Shit!

Derived terms

• sugar honey ice tea

Translations

See also

• glyco-
• -ose

References

• “sugar”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• “sugar”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “sugar”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “sugar”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “sugar” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “sugar”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “sugar”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Argus, Guras, argus, gaurs, guars, ragus, ragùs

Basque

Etymology

From su +‎ gar.

Pronunciation

Noun

sugar inan

1. flame

Galician

Alternative forms

• chuchar, suchar, zugar

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *sucāre, from Latin sugere, from Proto-Indo-European *sug-, *suk-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [suˈɣaɾ]

Verb

sugar (first-person singular present sugo, first-person singular preterite suguei, past participle sugado)

1. to suck

Conjugation

Derived terms

• sugota

Related terms

• samesuga

References

• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “semesuga”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “sugar”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “sugar”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• “sugar” in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (2014).
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “zugar”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Ido

Etymology

Borrowed from German saugen and Latin sūgere, and to some extent English suck.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /suˈɡar/

Verb

sugar (present tense sugas, past tense sugis, future tense sugos, imperative sugez, conditional sugus)

1. (transitive) to suck (candy, etc., something from something)

Conjugation

Derived terms

• suganta (“sucking; (zool.) suctorial”)
• sugilo (“sucker (as of an insect)”)
• mamsugar (“to suckle”)

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈsuː.ɡar/, [ˈs̠uːɡär]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈsu.ɡar/, [ˈsuːɡär]

Verb

sūgar

1. first-person singular future passive indicative of sūgō

Portuguese

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *sucāre, from Latin sūgere, from Proto-Indo-European *sug-, *suk-. Cognate with Galician sugar.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: su‧gar

Verb

sugar (first-person singular present sugo, first-person singular preterite suguei, past participle sugado)

1. to suck

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

Romanian

Etymology

From suge (“to suck”) +‎ -ar. Compare Dalmatian sugol (“lamb”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /suˈɡar/

Adjective

sugar m or n (feminine singular sugară, masculine plural sugari, feminine and neuter plural sugare)

1. suckling

Declension

Noun

sugar m (plural sugari, feminine equivalent sugară)

1. unweaned baby, newborn
2. suckling, young mammal that hasn't weaned yet

Declension

Synonyms

• sugaci

Venetan

Etymology

From Latin exsūcāre (“to juice; to dry”) (compare Italian asciugare, Friulian suiâ).

Verb

sugar

1. (transitive) to wipe, dry

Conjugation

* Venetan conjugation varies from one region to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

Related terms

• sugaman

See also

• suto