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 cozy Cypress Park restaurant with a focus on sherries debuted last spring from the hospitality group behind Found Oyster, Queen St. and Nossa Caipirinha Bar. —Stephanie Breijo, Los Angeles Times, 13 July 2024

And back in January the Whisky Exchange released a 1999 vintage of Yellow Spot that was aged for 23 years in three different barrel types: bourbon, sherry, and Malaga wine. —Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 11 July 2024

The drinks menu is a combination of refreshed classics, sometimes inflected with Mediterranean flavor: a Jerez Fizz stars PX sherry and Jerez brandy. —Sunset Magazine, 24 June 2024

Guests at El Palace Barcelona can also enjoy Mora-Figueroa Domecq sherries in both the hotel's Great Hall and the Rooftop Garden. —Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 21 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named for Xeres (now spelled Jerez), a city in Spain where the wine was originally made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.