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

Mains include short ribs with parsnip mash and sherry jus or Basque-style black cod. —Brock Keeling, Oc Register, 6 Mar. 2026

Add sherry to reserved skillet, bring to a simmer over medium. —Kimberly Holland, Southern Living, 6 Mar. 2026

This is a blend of 85 percent 12-year-old single grain whiskey aged in Oloroso sherry casks and 15 percent seven-year-old single malt aged in bourbon barrels. —Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 6 Mar. 2026

There are dry and sweet sherries (by the pour or bottle), wine flights, white and red sangria, and 13 cocktails, among them Alebrijes (mezcal, quinquina, salted honey syrup, dragonfruit and tangerine powders) and Laird’s Way (scotch, vermouth, amaro, walnut bitters). —Phillip Valys, Sun Sentinel, 5 Mar. 2026

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named for Xeres (now spelled Jerez), a city in Spain where the wine was originally made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