Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

jellybean

American  
[jel-ee-been] / ˈdʒɛl iˌbin /

noun

  • jellybeans
    plural
  1. a small, bean-shaped, usually brightly colored candy with a hard sugar coating and a firm gelatinous filling.


jellybean British  
/ ˈdʒɛlɪˌbiːn /

noun

  1. a bean-shaped sweet with a brightly coloured coating around a gelatinous filling

"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


Etymology

Origin of jellybean

An Americanism dating back to 1900–05; jelly + bean


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:

A Tic Tac or jellybean, for example, does not have enough water and too few air bubbles to allow it to expand.

From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2025

Marsupials give birth to embryonic or premature babies — called joeys — that are roughly the size of a jellybean, according to the zoo.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2023

Among other things, he takes $10 donations to play Bean Boozled, a favorite of his younger viewers, in which he eats a mystery jellybean that could taste like either chocolate or dog food.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 22, 2021

A creature the size of a jellybean spun through the air, delicate legs wiggling, reddish-brown body catching the light.

From Nature ● Oct. 17, 2017

It’s painted in a prep-school plaid pattern with a jellybean color scheme.

From Slate ● Apr. 19, 2015

Someone filled Conor Daly’s portable hot tub with Orbeez, superabsorbent polymers that resemble jellybeans and grow to 100 times their original size when submerged in water.

From Seattle Times ● May 26, 2022

For years, it was permanently stocked with jellybeans and Mountain Dew and smelled of too many people working too hard for too long.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2022

The confounding process of determining an LFO amount “has all the certainty of counting jellybeans in a jar,” dissenting judges blistered in response to the Eleventh Circuit Court’s opinion.

From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2020

We may no longer have to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar in order to cast a ballot.

From Washington Times ● Jul. 30, 2020

I says what else do you expect except every dam drummer and cheap show that comes to town because even these town jellybeans give her the go-by now.

From "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Just like flashcards, but way more fun

Don't take our word for it. Leave the boring studying behind and join VocabTrainer today. You'll learn even faster and never look back.

Take me to Vocabulary.com