Jelly

How to spell jelly

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce jelly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does jelly mean?

1. nounA soft, wobbly sweet dessert set with gelatin, usually fruit-flavoured.
2. nounA clear fruit preserve made from strained juice, spread on bread or toast.

Jelly in a sentence

• The children watched the jelly wobble on the plate.

• He spread grape jelly across his morning toast.

• She made a lime jelly for the birthday party.

• The sandwich had peanut butter and jelly inside.

Where does jelly come from?

Language of origin: French

Jelly comes from the Old French word gelee, which meant 'a frost' or 'a jellied substance', and which was really the past participle of the verb geler, 'to freeze'. That verb traces straight back to the Latin gelare, meaning 'to freeze' or 'to congeal', built on the noun gelu, 'frost' or 'icy cold'. English took the word in during the 1300s, keeping the underlying idea of a liquid that has set firm, like water turning to ice. The same chilly Latin root still shows up in relatives such as 'gelatin', 'congeal', and even 'gelid'. Because the spelling shifted from the French gelee to an English form, the soft 'g' sound ended up written with a 'j' and the doubled 'l', which is the small trap when writing it today.

How the word is built

• jell- (from Old French gelee: a frozen or set substance)
• -y (noun ending)