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molasses.

A thick, sweet syrup drained from sugarcane, especially (Canada, US) the still thicker and sweeter syrup produced by boiling down raw molasses.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/məˈlæsɪz/General-American[məˈlæsɪz]General-American[mɵˈlæsɪz]General-American/məʊˈlasɪz/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A thick, sweet syrup drained from sugarcane, especially (Canada, US) the still thicker and sweeter syrup produced by boiling down raw molasses.

    uncountable · usually
  2. Any similarly thick and sweet syrup produced by boiling down fruit juices, tree saps, etc., especially concentrated maple syrup.

    US · uncountable · usually
  3. Anything considered figuratively sweet, especially sweet words.

    figuratively · uncountable · usually
    He really poured on the molasses, charming his audience and changing more than a few votes.
  4. Something which moves or works extremely slowly.

    figuratively · uncountable · usually
  5. plural of molass: whiskey made from molasses.

    Scotland · form-of · obsolete · plural · uncountable · usually
  6. Synonym of molass: whiskey made from molasses.

    Scotland · obsolete · rare · uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

From Portuguese melaços or Spanish melazos, from Late Latin mellacium (“must, honey-sweet thing”), from mel (“honey”) + -āceus (“-aceous”) + -ium, q.v. Some alternative forms derived or influenced by Spanish melaza and French mélasse, conjectured to derive from unattested Late Latin mellacea, from mel + -ācea.

verb/məˈlæsɪz/General-American[məˈlæsɪz]General-American[mɵˈlæsɪz]General-American/məʊˈlasɪz/Received-Pronunciation
  1. third-person singular simple present indicative of molass

    form-of · indicative · obsolete · present · singular · third-person
Where this word comes from

From Portuguese melaços or Spanish melazos, from Late Latin mellacium (“must, honey-sweet thing”), from mel (“honey”) + -āceus (“-aceous”) + -ium, q.v. Some alternative forms derived or influenced by Spanish melaza and French mélasse, conjectured to derive from unattested Late Latin mellacea, from mel + -ācea.

noun/məˈlæsɪz/General-American/məˈlɑsɪz/General-American/məʊlasɪz/Received-Pronunciation/məˈlasɪz/Received-Pronunciation
  1. plural of molasse

    form-of · plural
Where this word comes from

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

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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.