croissant
Americannoun
-
croissants
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of croissant
1895–1900; < French: literally, crescent
Explanation
A croissant is a buttery, crescent-shaped French pastry. Good croissants are light, flaky, and delicately sweet. Enjoy one with a cup of coffee — preferably while sitting in a charming Parisian cafe. The croissant gets its name from its shape: in French, the word means "crescent" or "crescent of the moon." The Austrian pastry known as a Kipferl is the croissant's ancestor—in the 1830s, an Austrian opened a Viennese bakery in Paris, which became extremely popular and inspired French versions of the Kipferi, eventually named the croissant.
Vocabulary lists containing croissant
Stairway To Leaven: Baking Vocabulary
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World Cuisine - Introductory
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World Cuisine - Middle School and High School
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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:
His manifestos mix smart political satire with comedic promises to cap croissant prices, improve WiFi on UK trains and conscript people using speakerphones on public transport.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
Price for a caviar hot dog known as the Golden Glizzy, which features crème fraîche, mascarpone, 30 grams of Ossetra caviar and 24-karat edible gold flakes served on a fresh-baked croissant bun.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Winocour’s filmmaking itself is as steely as a Parisian’s gaze after you order the last croissant à la pâtisserie.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2026
They also have cinnamon-sugar croissant doughnuts that are really good.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2026
“Well, go eat some ice cream or get a chocolate croissant from Castleman’s or something.”
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
Besides wine, the course is marked with tables of cheese, croissants, oysters, steak and ice cream.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
For non-smokers, this came primarily from consuming contaminated food including breakfast cereals, bread, croissants and other pastries, biscuits, rice and potatoes, it said.
From Barron's ● May 13, 2026
It’s a chill coffee shop where croissants are made to order.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2026
So Radonich made changes, adding more shuttle trips and switching up the morning food offerings, adding things like breakfast burritos and stuffed croissants.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 24, 2026
Petits fours, as it turns out, aren’t made from just flour and butter, like croissants.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
