sherry

noun

sher·​ry ˈsher-ē 

plural sherries

: a Spanish fortified wine with a distinctive nutty flavor

also : a similar wine produced elsewhere

Examples of sherry in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Guests at El Palace Barcelona can also enjoy Mora-Figueroa Domecq sherries in both the hotel's Great Hall and the Rooftop Garden. —Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 21 June 2024

Fresh sides include garlic fingerling potatoes, Brussels sprouts with sherry and honey and seasonal local vegetables. —Shannon Greene, Charlotte Observer, 17 June 2024

For a shareable starter or rich entree, consider the sublime Lobster Ravioli ($23), with fresh lobster encased in handmade pasta and sauced with an aged sherry butter. —Kate Bradshaw, The Mercury News, 10 June 2024

Opinions vary on whether Savannah’s chicken tonkatsu with white sturgeon caviar emulsion and sweet pickled cabbage needed the roe at all, and Kévin’s beef tenderloin with sherry jus and confit potatoes is criticized as too undercooked. —Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 17 Apr. 2024

Word History

Etymology

alteration of earlier sherris (taken as plural), from Xeres (now Jerez), Spain

First Known Use

1584, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

sherry

noun

sher·​ry ˈsher-ē 

plural sherries

: a wine with a nutty flavor

Etymology

named for Xeres (now spelled Jerez), a city in Spain where the wine was originally made

Word Origin

It is common to name wines after the part of a country where they are made. The wine called sherry today was first made in a town originally called, in Spanish, Xeres. The English approximation of the Spanish pronunciation was \ˈsher-ēz\, spelled sherris. After a time, people thought that sherris was a plural and so made a singular form, sherry, by cutting off the supposed plural ending. The \sh\ sound symbolized by x in Spanish (later by j) changed to a \ḵ\ or \h\, so that the modern Spanish pronunciation of Jerez is even less like English sherry.