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

Sold as powder, extract, paste, or frozen puree, ube is easily mixed into coffee, pastries, ice cream, spreads and even make-up.

From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026

"If you start out with pure vanilla ice cream but start mixing in sprinkles soon after, it won't be long until you can no longer find any pristine, plain, vanilla ice cream," Zhu said.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026

For dessert, guests were served vanilla crémeux and White House-harvested honey ice cream.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

He added: "I know they've done it with a florist before, and I think they've done it with an ice cream parlour before."

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

According to Emma, ice cream solves everything, so when we left the library, we immediately went to the stand next door.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

Related Words

• frozen yogurt
• sherbet
• sorbet