pudding

American  

[pood-ing] / ˈpʊd ɪŋ /

noun

puddings plural

1. a thick, soft dessert, typically containing flour or some other thickener, milk, eggs, a flavoring, and sweetener.

   tapioca pudding.

2. a similar dish unsweetened and served with or as a main dish.

   corn pudding.

3. British. the dessert course of a meal.

4. Nautical. a pad or fender for preventing scraping or chafing or for lessening shock between vessels or other objects.

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pudding British  

/ ˈpʊdɪŋ /

noun

1. a sweetened usually cooked dessert made in many forms and of various ingredients, such as flour, milk, and eggs, with fruit, etc

2. a savoury dish, usually soft and consisting partially of pastry or batter

   steak-and-kidney pudding

3. the dessert course in a meal

4. a sausage-like mass of seasoned minced meat, oatmeal, etc, stuffed into a prepared skin or bag and boiled

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pudding Idioms  

1. see proof of the pudding.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• puddinglike
  adjective
• puddingy
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• puddings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pudding

1275–1325; Middle English poding kind of sausage; compare Old English puduc wen, sore (perhaps originally swelling), Low German puddewurst black pudding

Explanation

Pudding is a sweet, creamy dessert that you eat with a spoon. The song “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” implores someone to “bring us some figgy pudding,” but chocolate or vanilla would be much easier to find. Most pudding is made with milk, sugar, and flavoring with a thickening agent like cornstarch. Your favorite might be dark chocolate, butterscotch, or rice pudding. These are delicious, smooth, and usually served cold. In Britain, pudding simply means "dessert," but in North America pudding is a specific kind of after-dinner treat. Back in the 1300s, pudding had a different meaning: "a kind of sausage." You can still get that kind of blood pudding in England. If you must.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pudding puddings

That’s probably overegging the pudding — I’d be surprised if that many attendees signed on the dotted line — but in the end, it’s a numbers game.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026

No one has deployed hospital-grade pudding foil to greater effect.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026

Scattered over the top of bread pudding before baking, it creates these bronzed little crackly edges that make the whole thing feel finished.

From Salon ● May 25, 2026

I’m a devoted member of the “Oooh, I like this, it’s not too sweet” school of dessert, and bread pudding thrives in that space.

From Salon ● May 25, 2026

We all sit back down, and she serves us each a bowl of warmed bread pudding with ice cream.

From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King

But three months after proposing to his girlfriend, he discovered that not only did he want one, he needed mini Yorkshire puddings with prime rib and horseradish cream at the event.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026

With G&T, dinners showcase Dorset’s homegrown ingredients at their best: delicate hand-dived scallops from Lyme Bay, organic salads scattered with edible flowers, puddings as light as cherry blossoms.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026

The FDA guidance sets a lead limit of 10 parts per billion for fruits, most vegetables, grain and meat mixtures, yogurts, custards and puddings and single-ingredient meats.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2025

Alongside meat, people ate pies, puddings and frumenty – a sweet porridge made with wheat, eggs, milk and sugar.

From Salon ● Dec. 23, 2024

“Tell me about weddings,” Claire asked as she and Alys carried the nutcake they had made to the feast table, where it would be placed with the festive puddings and sweets.

From "Son" by Lois Lowry