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caramel

Pronunciation: /ˈkæ.ɹəˌmɛl/

The English word “caramel” has 5 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A smooth, chewy, sticky confection made by heating sugar and other ingredients until the sugars polymerize and become sticky.
  2. A (sometimes hardened) piece of this confection.
  3. A yellow-brown color, like that of caramel.

adjective

  1. Of a yellow-brown color.

verb

  1. To caramelize.

Etymology

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 are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.