muffin
Americannoun
-
muffins
plural
-
an individual cup-shaped quick bread made with wheat flour, cornmeal, or the like, and baked in a pan muffin pan containing a series of cuplike forms.
noun
-
a thick round baked yeast roll, usually toasted and served with butter
-
a small cup-shaped sweet bread roll, usually eaten hot with butter
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of muffin
First recorded in 1695–1705; origin uncertain
Explanation
A muffin is a small baked good made from batter. Don't kid yourself: the only real difference between a slice of cake and a muffin is the shape. Muffins are single-serving quick breads, which rise with the help of baking soda or baking powder and eggs instead of yeast. They tend to be sweet and somewhat moist, but heavier than a cake or cupcake. Muffins are baked in a pan with cup-sized indentations. The word was originally moofin, which may come from the Low German muffe, "small cake," or the Old French moflet, "soft or tender."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I wanted something small like a bran muffin and quickly scanned the menu for “I Am Regular” to no avail.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
This recipe, courtesy of Food52, swaps out traditional ladyfingers for cornbread, which is made from boxed Jiffy corn muffin mix, whole milk and an egg.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
Eating eggs and avocado on an English muffin, I see that someone I follow has shared a Substack note from neuroscientist Manuela Kouakou:
From Slate ● May 10, 2026
This time in England when Molly ate a muffin containing milk.
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026
“I’ll take an English muffin if you’ll make one. I gotta go back up and get my sneakers,” Will said.
From "Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story" by Nora Raleigh Baskin
Together they lit some incense and munched on muffins and chips and guacamole.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2026
A breakfast of power bars or muffins and a coffee with milk and sugar is also high in calories and low in nutrients.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 21, 2026
Helming a food business is a full-circle moment for Paltrow, who in 2008 launched the Goop newsletter from her kitchen table; the first dispatch contained her recipes for turkey ragù and banana-nut muffins.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
"Unlike muffins, cupcakes, or biscuits, cakes are designed to be sliced and shared," she says.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2026
It is our last day of classes before the holiday break and we linger over our English muffins.
From "Lucky Broken Girl" by Ruth Behar
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
