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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

hot cross buns

plural

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.

See Examples For:

hot cross bun

Cakes and desserts are a big inspiration for his team, and they're proud of a new hot cross bun inspired by carrot cake.

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