pastry
Americannoun
-
a sweet baked food made of dough, especially the shortened paste used for pie crust and the like.
-
any item of food of which such dough forms an essential part, as a pie, tart, or napoleon.
noun
-
a dough of flour, water, shortening, and sometimes other ingredients
-
baked foods, such as tarts, made with this dough
-
an individual cake or pastry pie
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pastry
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."
Vocabulary lists containing pastry
Stairway To Leaven: Baking Vocabulary
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Voilà: Croissant Lingo
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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.
Pastry chef and author Ravneet Gill, who opened her first restaurant a year ago, said she "never imagined it would be this tough", especially the expense when it came to employing people.
From BBC • May 29, 2026
Here to answer all our yeast-related concerns is Trung Vu, chef-instructor of Pastry & Baking Arts at the Institute of Culinary Education’s New York City campus.
From Salon • Sep. 25, 2025
He’s half French and half Swiss, which he says makes him eligible to be New Denmark’s “Chief Pastry Officer.”
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2025
The event, one among dozens, was organised by the Paris office of the French Union of Bakers and Pastry Makers and sponsored by a group of dairy farmers from south-west France.
From BBC • May 5, 2024
Pastry merchants nearby held trays of dough balls soaked in rose hip syrup, and cardamom cakes served with hot tea from Yunnan.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
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.
