confectionery
Americannoun
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confectioneries
plural
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candy or other confections collectively.
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the work or business of a confectioner, who makes or sells confections.
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a place where confections are sold; a confectioner's shop.
noun
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sweets and other confections collectively
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the art or business of a confectioner
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of confectionery
First recorded in 1535–45; confection + -ery
Explanation
Confectionery is a fancy word for candy and other sweet treats, the place where they're sold, and the art of making them. If you're craving sour gummy worms or chocolate-covered pistachios, you can satisfy your sweet tooth by visiting a confectionery. Confectionery comes from confection, another word for a sugary treat. The candy aisle, cupcake bakery, and artisan chocolate shop can all be called confectioneries. Some chefs study confectionery in culinary school. You can also use the word to mean sweets. For some people, Halloween is all about dressing up in fabulous costumes, but for others, it's a perfect occasion to collect bags full of confectionery!
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:
Its North America confectionery segment reported an 8.3% sales increase, while international sales rose 16%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
After a visit home, I returned to campus with a stockpile, like a confectionery smuggler crossing state lines with sugary contraband stuffed between sweatshirts in my suitcase.
From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2026
Since joining the series, Leith has sampled scores of competitors’ signature bakes, judged technical baking challenges and marveled at numerous bakers’ memorable confectionery showstoppers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 21, 2026
Ferragni's legal troubles relate in part to her 2022 endorsement of a pandoro cake made by Italian confectionery company Balocco that purported to raise funds for children undergoing treatment at a Turin hospital.
From Barron's ● Jan. 14, 2026
I’ve always regarded the Pepper Imp as the king of the confectionery bag.
From "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" by J.K. Rowling
Consumption was negatively associated with the intake of healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables and pulses, and positively associated with the consumption of confectioneries.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 18, 2024
And her line of the family happened to inherit Cheil Jedang, CJ, which was a food supplier at the time, just cheap confectioneries and all that.
From The Verge ● Apr. 10, 2020
In Detroit, a man confessed to breaking into 13 confectioneries to stuff himself with fancy desserts.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some of us," said he, "love to deck ourselves in academic confectioneries, but the old breeze of American ridicule will save us from carrying our mortar boards too high.
From Time Magazine Archive
There were sweetmeat shops in which there were heaps of confectioneries ranged in regular rows, but no human beings to sell them.
From Folk-Tales of Bengal by Lal Behari Day
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.
