biscuit

¹ American  

[bis-kit] / ˈbɪs kɪt /

noun

1. a kind of bread in small, soft cakes, raised with baking powder or soda, or sometimes with yeast; scone.

2. Chiefly British.

   1. a dry and crisp or hard bread in thin, flat cakes, made without yeast or other raising agent; a cracker.

   2. a cookie.

3. a pale-brown color.

4. Also called bisque.  Ceramics. unglazed earthenware or porcelain after firing.

5. Also called preform.  a piece of plastic or the like, prepared for pressing into a phonograph record.

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adjective

1. having the color biscuit.

biscuit ² American  

[bees-kwee] / bisˈkwi /

noun

French.

1. a cookie or cracker.

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biscuit British  

/ ˈbɪskɪt /

noun

1. US and Canadian word: cookie.  a small flat dry sweet or plain cake of many varieties, baked from a dough

2. a kind of small roll similar to a muffin

3. 1. a pale brown or yellowish-grey colour

   2. ( as adjective )

      biscuit gloves

4. Also called: bisque.  earthenware or porcelain that has been fired but not glazed

5. slang to be regarded (by the speaker) as the most surprising thing that could have occurred

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Other Word Forms

• biscuitlike
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of biscuit

1300–50; Middle English bysquyte < Middle French biscuit ( Medieval Latin biscoctus ), variant of bescuit seamen's bread, literally, twice cooked, equivalent to bes bis ¹ + cuit, past participle of cuire < Latin coquere to cook ¹

Explanation

A biscuit is a small, round type of bread. A biscuit is delicious with butter, or you might prefer your biscuits with gravy. Biscuits are a lot like rolls, and they often serve the same purpose by being side dishes or appetizers. Baking powder or soda is used to leaven biscuits, which are best served when warm and soft. A hard, stale biscuit isn’t very appealing. People often eat biscuits as a side dish with dinner, or smothered with gravy at breakfast.

Example Sentences

In 2024, he landed a job with the Montgomery Biscuits, a Minor League Baseball team in Alabama, as an equipment manager.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 20, 2026

Biscuits and red gravy, hash brown bites, chocolate chip cookies, club sandwiches, market salads and other quintessential American foods — all served on opening day — are now nowhere to be found.

From Salon • Aug. 18, 2025

There's the smell of baked biscuits wafting from Honeysuckle Biscuits & Bakery and the rumble of a nearby railroad train.

From BBC • Dec. 23, 2024

Erika Council, who runs a breakfast spot in Atlanta called Bomb Biscuits, grew up eating and cooking with Southern peaches.

From New York Times • Jul. 6, 2023

Biscuits warm and buttered stop halfway to our mouths.

From "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson

Related Words

• camel
• cream
• khaki
• off-white
• tan
• taupe