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 cocktail is made with rum, scotch, sherry, papaya, vanilla, orange, lemon, nutmeg and whole milk. —Jordyn Noennig, Journal Sentinel, 6 Aug. 2024

The bourbon is quite good, aged in a solera-style system that incorporates older liquid into the blend before being finished in 20-year-old Oloroso sherry casks. —Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 15 May 2024

Chef David Repp is the owner/chef of Cass Cay Restaurant in Punta Gorda, Fla., and Mila’s on the Manatee in Palmetto, Fla. Mussels steamed in sherry vinegar. —Johnny Noakes, Hartford Courant, 11 Aug. 2024

The crust is made from einkorn flour, aged sherry vinegar and Okinawan black sugar, and the filling — a composite of roasted, tender yams with yam juice, rum and allspice — is matured overnight before being baked off the morning of the event. —Bryan A’hearn, Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2024

Word History

Etymology

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

First Known Use

1584, in the meaning defined above

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named for Xeres (now spelled Jerez), a city in Spain where the wine was originally made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