pastry

American  

[pey-stree] / ˈpeɪ stri /

noun

plural

pastries

1. a sweet baked food made of dough, especially the shortened paste used for pie crust and the like.

2. any item of food of which such dough forms an essential part, as a pie, tart, or napoleon.

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pastry British  

/ ˈpeɪstrɪ /

noun

1. a dough of flour, water, shortening, and sometimes other ingredients

2. baked foods, such as tarts, made with this dough

3. an individual cake or pastry pie

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Etymology

Origin of pastry

First recorded in 1530–40; paste + -ry

Explanation

A pastry is a sweet baked good. If you are into fruit tarts or chocolate eclairs, then you've got a thing for pastries. Most pastries start out as a soft dough or batter made from flour, sugar, eggs, milk, and butter. A tray of pastry at breakfast could include Danishes and croissants, while dessert pastries might be baklava, cream puffs, and strudel. All of these are variously flavored baked sweets, some formed from thin layers of flaky dough and others filled with fruit, cream, or other fillings. Another type of pastry is pie crust, a buttery dough that forms the base (and sometimes topping) for pies. Pastry originally meant "food made from paste," and paste meant "dough."

Example Sentences

A Persian baklava dressed with golden shards of filo pastry.

From BBC • Mar. 28, 2026

I order a latte and a whole grain pastry twisted with ham and cheese.

From Salon • Mar. 8, 2026

The short video shows Mychelle in a hospital gown picking at a pastry, along with what appears to be a case for a portable breast pump in her lap.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 23, 2026

Amodei, whose family is Italian, loves maritozzi so much that her husband once gave her a stuffed toy in the shape of the pastry as a gift.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026

We usually split a pastry and order iced coffees.

From "Piecing Me Together" by Renée Watson

Related Words

• bread
• cake
• croissant
• doughnut
• phyllo
• pie