jelly
Americannoun
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a food preparation of a soft, elastic consistency due to the presence of gelatin, pectin, etc., especially fruit juice boiled down with sugar and used as a sweet spread for bread and toast, as a filling for cakes or doughnuts, etc.
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any substance having the consistency of jelly.
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Chiefly British. a fruit-flavored gelatin dessert.
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a plastic sandal or shoe.
verb (used with or without object)
adjective
noun
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US and Canadian trademark: Jell-o. a fruit-flavoured clear dessert set with gelatine
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a preserve made from the juice of fruit boiled with sugar and used as jam
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a savoury food preparation set with gelatine or with a strong gelatinous stock and having a soft elastic consistency
calf's-foot jelly
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anything having the consistency of jelly
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informal a coloured gelatine filter that can be fitted in front of a stage or studio light
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of jelly
1350–1400; Middle English gely < Old French gelee frozen jelly < Medieval Latin gelāta frozen, equivalent to Latin gel- freeze + -āta -ate 1; cf. gel, cold
Explanation
Jelly is a sweet preserved form of fruit that's usually made with sugar. Your favorite breakfast might be buttered toast spread thickly with strawberry jelly. Jelly is the close relative to jam and preserves — jelly is typically more translucent than its fruitier cousins, and is sometimes made with juice rather than whole pieces of fruit. Outside of North America, jelly is a dessert made from gelatin. Jelly comes from the Old French gelee, "jelly" and also "frost," from the verb geler, "to congeal," with its Latin root gelare, "to freeze."
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:
Everyone has a different jar of jelly beans with which to make their calculations.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
Unfazed by the crashing waves, 72-year-old Wu Feng-chiao yanks fistfuls of brownish-purple seaweed she will process into jelly, one of the last women in Taiwan keeping the marine harvest tradition alive.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Maybe it’s homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches made on pillowy Wonder Bread, with the crusts cut off.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026
For decades, researchers viewed royal jelly, a nutrient-rich substance fed to young larvae by worker bees, as the primary driver of this dramatic transformation.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 2026
“Because you ate the jelly beans! Fate put them there and you gobbled down your destiny.”
From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein
This coordination allows comb jellies to maintain their orientation as they move through the water.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 6, 2026
Marine life that most people never see floated into view, including delicate comb jellies with pulsing fairy-light illuminations along their sides.
From Barron's ● Jan. 26, 2026
Fancy cocktail napkins are a big seller, as are specialty jellies in flavors like hot pepper and cinnamon pear.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 6, 2025
It uses a cavernous hood to trap crustaceans to eat — a feeding strategy also used by anemones and some jellies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2024
Apples piled high, some lent their aroma to the air from where they dried in the sun on the lean-to roofs and others as they bubbled into jellies and jams.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
The now elusive species was once common and frequently caught in the River Thames to make eel pies and jellied eels.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
In the 19th century, children gobbled chiles and mutton and turnips and jellied pig’s brain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
There are close-ups of hands kneading dough, a snail sliming its way up a window and Cathy prodding a jellied fish with her finger.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2026
Datasembly measured prices for russet potatoes, roasted turkey gravy, eight buttermilk biscuits, cut green beans, jellied cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie mix, frozen pastry pie shells, whipped topping and sweet corn.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 15, 2023
One day he returned from a customer with galareta, a Polish dish of jellied chicken feet.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
Yet it has caused one hell of a stir, jellying the jaded reserve of hardcore automotive journalists and hard-nose collectors alike.
From The Verge ● Feb. 2, 2016
In the meantime, our stomachs jellying and our necks burning, we listened, avoided each other’s eyes, and picked toe jam or whatever.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
A whole summer of jellying and juicing, she said, hadn’t made so much mess in the kitchen.
From "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorensen
After a physician arrived, it was found that the jellying of my flesh was not the worst of it; for, in consequence of some injury to my spine, my lower limbs were paralyzed.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 05, March, 1858 by Various
Long cooking of pectin changes it into substances which do not have the property of jellying, hence, make jelly in as short a time as possible.
From School and Home Cooking by Greer, Carlotta Cherryholmes
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.
