jelly
Americannoun
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jellies
plural
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a food preparation of a soft, elastic consistency due to the presence of gelatin, pectin, etc., especially fruit juice boiled down with sugar and used as a sweet spread for bread and toast, as a filling for cakes or doughnuts, etc.
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any substance having the consistency of jelly.
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Chiefly British. a fruit-flavored gelatin dessert.
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a plastic sandal or shoe.
verb (used with or without object)
adjective
noun
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US and Canadian trademark: Jell-o. a fruit-flavoured clear dessert set with gelatine
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a preserve made from the juice of fruit boiled with sugar and used as jam
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a savoury food preparation set with gelatine or with a strong gelatinous stock and having a soft elastic consistency
calf's-foot jelly
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anything having the consistency of jelly
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informal a coloured gelatine filter that can be fitted in front of a stage or studio light
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of jelly
1350–1400; Middle English gely < Old French gelee frozen jelly < Medieval Latin gelāta frozen, equivalent to Latin gel- freeze + -āta -ate 1; cf. gel, cold
Explanation
Jelly is a sweet preserved form of fruit that's usually made with sugar. Your favorite breakfast might be buttered toast spread thickly with strawberry jelly. Jelly is the close relative to jam and preserves — jelly is typically more translucent than its fruitier cousins, and is sometimes made with juice rather than whole pieces of fruit. Outside of North America, jelly is a dessert made from gelatin. Jelly comes from the Old French gelee, "jelly" and also "frost," from the verb geler, "to congeal," with its Latin root gelare, "to freeze."
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:
"Due to my health challenges, there are days where I literally can't feel my legs, they feel like jelly, there's days where I'm completely exhausted after sleeping, I wake up completely shattered."
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
Michael Cyrus Daugherty, then a postdoctoral fellow at NIST, had developed software for digitally unrolling CT scans of the "jelly rolls" found inside lithium-ion batteries.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026
Then the question becomes: What’s the point of retirement savings if you have more when you die than when you started retirement, and meanwhile you’re living on peanut butter and jelly?
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
Improved full-year financial estimates came from a diverse set of companies, including healthcare companies McKesson and Charles River Laboratories International and jelly giant Smucker.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
“And then there’s the untouched jelly bean fish,” Valley had added.
From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega
An alternative to jams or jellies, we love spooning it onto bites of toasted bagels or hot buttered toast.
From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2026
Marine life that most people never see floated into view, including delicate comb jellies with pulsing fairy-light illuminations along their sides.
From Barron's ● Jan. 26, 2026
Fancy cocktail napkins are a big seller, as are specialty jellies in flavors like hot pepper and cinnamon pear.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 6, 2025
It uses a cavernous hood to trap crustaceans to eat — a feeding strategy also used by anemones and some jellies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2024
I walked down the stairs, toward the jellies exhibit.
From "The Thing About Jellyfish" by Ali Benjamin
There are close-ups of hands kneading dough, a snail sliming its way up a window and Cathy prodding a jellied fish with her finger.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2026
He imagines—and 4- to 7-year-olds see him do it—plucking a length of sunshine off the wall and using what appear to be jellied cubes of colored light to make the beams of his own lighthouse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
But for anyone feeling adventurous, pie 'n' mash can also be served with stewed jellied eels - another Cockney favourite.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2024
Datasembly measured prices for russet potatoes, roasted turkey gravy, eight buttermilk biscuits, cut green beans, jellied cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie mix, frozen pastry pie shells, whipped topping and sweet corn.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 15, 2023
One day he returned from a customer with galareta, a Polish dish of jellied chicken feet.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
Yet it has caused one hell of a stir, jellying the jaded reserve of hardcore automotive journalists and hard-nose collectors alike.
From The Verge ● Feb. 2, 2016
A whole summer of jellying and juicing, she said, hadn’t made so much mess in the kitchen.
From "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorensen
In the meantime, our stomachs jellying and our necks burning, we listened, avoided each other’s eyes, and picked toe jam or whatever.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
Long cooking of pectin changes it into substances which do not have the property of jellying, hence, make jelly in as short a time as possible.
From School and Home Cooking by Carlotta Cherryholmes Greer
The fruit juice must contain a certain amount of pectin, or jellying principle, and also a certain amount of acid.
From Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Household Management by Ontario. Ministry of Education
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