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

The whisky was aged in a variety of barrels, but the sherry casks used for this quarter-century maturation take the lead here. —Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 9 Oct. 2025

In the dining cars, rotating menus spotlight regional specialties and seasonal ingredients—think oxtail stew from Córdoba, Jabugo ham, and manchego drizzled with local honey, paired with Spanish wines and sherries curated by a sommelier. —AFAR Media, 8 Oct. 2025

Cava for Megan and sherry for me—a variety called Manzanilla, which is beautifully dry and best served cold. —Fiona Mozley, Travel + Leisure, 4 Oct. 2025

Also, in a concerning development, Anne seems to have moved on from sherry to laudanum. —Keith Phipps, Vulture, 26 Sep. 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named for Xeres (now spelled Jerez), a city in Spain where the wine was originally made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.