cognac
noun
the brandy distilled in and shipped from the legally delimited area surrounding the town of Cognac, in W central France.
cognac
American
[kohn-yak, kon-, kaw-nyak]
/ ˈkoʊn jæk, ˈkɒn-, kɔˈnjak /
noun
-
cognacs
plural
-
(often initial capital letter) the brandy distilled in and shipped from the legally delimited area surrounding the town of Cognac, in W central France.
-
any French brandy.
-
any good brandy.
Cognac
British
/ kɔɲak, ˈkɒnjæk /
noun
-
a town in SW France: centre of the district famed for its brandy. Pop: 19 534 (1999)
-
(sometimes not capital) a high-quality grape brandy
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cognac
Borrowed into English from French around 1585–95
Compare meaning
How does cognac compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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:
The businessman, who made his money in cognac and real estate, had renounced his Ukrainian citizenship some years ago.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
Champagne and cognac accounted for 40 percent of the export values, at around 600 million euros each.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
In the two weeks preceding the election, Moscow banned the export of Armenian flowers, mineral water, cognac, fresh vegetables and fruit.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
As he worked his way in closer, Mercader reported to Leonid Eitignon, a Soviet spymaster who “always appeared to be in control. A glass of cognac would last him an entire evening.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
Obinze nodded, and Chief gave him another long look, before silently turning back to his cognac.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Within this Cognac sales were down 0.5% organically to 573.6 million euros, while its partner brand sales were 23% lower at 15.6 million euros.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
Joining Donalds at Tuesday night's events, dubbed "Congress, Cognac and Cigars," was his a Black colleague, Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, who appeared earlier in the day at a Trump campaign event targeting Pennsylvania's African-American voters.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2024
Last year, still adapting to its exit from the European Union, Britain introduced a system of “geographical indicators” intended to replace a pan-European system meant to protect products like Champagne and Cognac from imitations.
From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2024
The major served with the Battalion's French liaison officer, Captain Michel Martell, a family member of the Martell Cognac Company.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2022
De Thou reckons the losses of the Roman Catholics before Cognac at more than 300 men.
From History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume 2 by Henry Martyn Baird
Maybe CFB should go Waymo, blame the robots for any uproar about gatekeeping and big-school elitism and let the smoke-filled room return to cognacs and afternoon naps.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 22, 2025
Macron brought up some particularly French concerns, including China’s threat of tariffs on cognacs.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2024
For long, rum has been relegated to the bottom shelf of bar cabinets around the world with whiskeys, cognacs and gins taking prime slots.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2023
There’s a brass lamp from Rick’s, fringed with imitation gemstones, and two rattan chairs where Europe’s desperate and displaced drank their cognacs and plotted their escapes.
From New York Times ● Dec. 1, 2022
"Then I'll teach you how to test them in future," he laughed, adding, "Henry, bring up those three old cognacs, a bottle of ordinary brandy, and some liqueur-glasses."
From Spies of the Kaiser Plotting the Downfall of England by William Le Queux
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.
