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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

caramel.

A smooth, chewy, sticky confection made by heating sugar and other ingredients until the sugars polymerize and become sticky.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkæ.ɹəˌmɛl/Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/ˈkæ.ɹə.məl/Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/ˈkæɹ.ə.mɛl/General-American/ˈkæɹ.ə.məl/General-American
  1. A smooth, chewy, sticky confection made by heating sugar and other ingredients until the sugars polymerize and become sticky.

    uncountable
  2. A (sometimes hardened) piece of this confection.

    countable
  3. A yellow-brown color, like that of caramel.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French caramel, from Spanish caramelo, from Portuguese caramelo, dissimilated from Late Latin calamellus, diminutive of calamus (“reed”) (and a doublet of chalumeau and shawm). Alternatively from Medieval Latin cannamellis, which is a compound of canna + mellis.

adj/ˈkæ.ɹəˌmɛl/Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/ˈkæ.ɹə.məl/Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/ˈkæɹ.ə.mɛl/General-American/ˈkæɹ.ə.məl/General-American
  1. Of a yellow-brown color.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French caramel, from Spanish caramelo, from Portuguese caramelo, dissimilated from Late Latin calamellus, diminutive of calamus (“reed”) (and a doublet of chalumeau and shawm). Alternatively from Medieval Latin cannamellis, which is a compound of canna + mellis.

verb/ˈkæ.ɹəˌmɛl/Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/ˈkæ.ɹə.məl/Australia, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/ˈkæɹ.ə.mɛl/General-American/ˈkæɹ.ə.məl/General-American
  1. To caramelize.

    dated · transitive
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French caramel, from Spanish caramelo, from Portuguese caramelo, dissimilated from Late Latin calamellus, diminutive of calamus (“reed”) (and a doublet of chalumeau and shawm). Alternatively from Medieval Latin cannamellis, which is a compound of canna + mellis.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.