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hot cross bun

American

noun

a bun with a cross of frosting on it, eaten chiefly during Lent.

hot cross bun British

noun

a yeast bun with spices, currants, and sometimes candied peel, marked with a cross and traditionally eaten on Good Friday

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of hot cross bun

First recorded in 1725–35

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.

"But I quite like the hot cross bun with a bit of apple."

From BBC • Mar. 27, 2026

"It wasn't a vegan recipe. What is pea protein doing in a hot cross bun?"

From BBC • Aug. 23, 2025

She was referring to the Jamaican spiced bun, a descendant of the British hot cross bun and kin to a moist fruitcake or banana bread.

From Washington Post • Apr. 27, 2022

Cultures around the world have their Easter-specific sweets, from the hot cross bun to colomba pasquale, each an enriched bread of some kind with added fruit and as many flourishes as can reasonably fit.

From Salon • Apr. 14, 2022

I don’t know about the hot cross bun, though.

From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023