sherry

noun

sher·​ry ˈsher-ē 

plural sherries

: a Spanish fortified wine with a distinctive nutty flavor

also : a similar wine produced elsewhere

Examples of sherry in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For sherry-cask whisky fans, this is essentially the Super Bowl. —Emily Price, Forbes.com, 9 Sep. 2025

In the modern era, the focus of the distillery, which is led by master blender Rachel Barrie, is on maturing whisky in Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry casks that are sourced from Andalucia, Spain. —Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 9 Sep. 2025

Fresh sides include garlic fingerling potatoes, Brussels sprouts with sherry and honey and seasonal local vegetables. —Charlotte Observer, 22 Aug. 2025

My writing apparatus for the day would be a large notepad, Mono Graph mechanical pencil, coffee, mint tea, fino sherry, and later on, a martini (gin, with one olive). —Nicole Kliest, Vogue, 22 Aug. 2025

Word History

Etymology

alteration of earlier sherris (taken as plural), from Xeres (now Jerez), Spain

First Known Use

1584, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for sherry

• aerie
• airy
• arie
• barre
• cherry
• clary
• dairy
• eyrie
• faerie
• faery
• fairy
• ferry

Kids Definition

sherry

noun

sher·​ry ˈsher-ē 

plural sherries

: a wine with a nutty flavor

Etymology

named for Xeres (now spelled Jerez), a city in Spain where the wine was originally made

Word Origin

It is common to name wines after the part of a country where they are made. The wine called sherry today was first made in a town originally called, in Spanish, Xeres. The English approximation of the Spanish pronunciation was \ˈsher-ēz\, spelled sherris. After a time, people thought that sherris was a plural and so made a singular form, sherry, by cutting off the supposed plural ending. The \sh\ sound symbolized by x in Spanish (later by j) changed to a \ḵ\ or \h\, so that the modern Spanish pronunciation of Jerez is even less like English sherry.