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jelly

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A dessert made by boiling gelatine, sugar and some flavouring and allowing it to set.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

jehlee

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈdʒɛli

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. commonwealth

    A dessert made by boiling gelatine (or a plant-based alternative such as agar or carrageenan), sugar and some flavouring (often derived from fruit) and allowing it to set.

  2. A preserve made of the jelled juice of fruit

  3. A savoury substance, derived from meat, that has the same texture as the dessert.

  4. Any substance having the consistency of jelly or gelatin

  5. Any substance or object having the consistency of the dessert or preserve.

  6. colloquial

    An edible jelly (sweet or pungent) made with gelatin and used as a dessert or salad base or a coating for foods

verb

  1. transitive

    To make into jelly.

  2. transitive

    To preserve in jelly.

  3. To wiggle like jelly.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A dessert made by boiling gelatine (or a plant-based alternative such as agar or carrageenan), sugar and some flavouring (often derived from fruit) and allowing it to set.

Used this way, jelly is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use jelly

  • “We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Preserve / dessert

grape jellyjelly fishjelly bean

Other combinations

petroleum jellyjelly rolllike jellycurrant jellyjelly sandwich

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • jelly eggnounCompound term

    Sugar-glazed jellied candy.

  • jelly fungusnounCompound term

    Any fungus of the order Tremellales or Auriculariales whose fruiting body is jellylike in consistency when fresh.

  • jelly doughnutnounCompound term

    A raised doughnut filled with jelly or jam.

  • jelly beannounCompound term

    Sugar-glazed jellied candy.

  • crabapple jellynounCompound term

    A tart apple jelly made from crab apples.

  • glycerin jellynounCompound term

    A mixture of glycerin and gelatin that is used in histology for mounting specimens.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.