ice cream

American  

noun

1. a frozen food containing cream or milk and butterfat, sugar, flavoring, and sometimes eggs.

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ice cream British  

noun

1. a kind of sweetened frozen liquid, properly made from cream and egg yolks but often made from milk or a custard base, flavoured in various ways

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Etymology

Origin of ice cream

First recorded in 1735–45

Compare meaning

How does ice-cream compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• sorbet vs. ice cream
• custard vs. ice cream
• ice milk vs. ice cream
• frozen custard vs. ice cream

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ice cream

It's a mammoth task: The vast majority of the city's 20,500 licensed food carts -- selling pretzels, peanuts and ice cream -- rely on generators to power stoves, freezers and ventilators.

From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026

That will help you realize things like this faucet doesn’t get hot water or I forgot to put an ice cream scoop in the kitchen.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

The mayor recently proposed reforms to some regulations on small businesses, like no longer requiring restaurants to obtain a special permit to serve ice cream.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

Son-in-law Jaya develops recipes and makes ice cream for the business and the family is working towards the goal of seeing their products stocked on supermarket shelves.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

In reality, I’m thinking about the last time I ate cookies-and.cream ice cream.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

Related Words

• frozen yogurt
• sherbet
• sorbet