candy

KAN-dee/ˈkæn.di/

Pluralcandies (some meanings)

Verbcandies, candying, candied

6 meanings of candy

Practice

1
nounCanadaPhilippinesUSuncountable
Sweet confectionery made with sugar or other sweeteners, often flavored with fruit, chocolate or nuts, or a single piece of it.
The shop stocks every kind of candy, from chocolate bars to fruit chews.
Eating too much candy can rot your teeth.
UsageUsually some candy, a piece of candy, a bag of candy; candies also names separate pieces or kinds.
Similarsweets, confectionery
2
cook in syrupverbtransitive
To cook food in sugar syrup, or to coat it with syrup.
Confectioners candy whole cherries for use in cakes.
She likes to candy walnuts and scatter them over salad.
UsageMost often seen as candied: candied peel, candied cherries, candied walnuts.
Similarcrystallize, glaze, sugar
Note
The fruit or nut is cooked in syrup until sugar soaks in or sets into a hard or glossy coat, and the sugar both preserves it and finishes it. The verb grew from the older noun for the confectionery, whose Old French source, sucre candi, meant "candied sugar."
3
verbintransitive
Of honey, syrup, or similar, to crystallize or harden into a sugary, candy-like mass.
Honey stored in a cool pantry will often candy within a few months.
The preserves candied near the rim of the jar.
Similarcrystallize, granulate
Note
Here the sugar acts on its own. Nobody candies the honey; it candies in the jar. Unlike the cook's verb, it names something that happens with time rather than something a person does.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
Honey can crystallize naturally over time without a person causing it. scu.edu.au

Less common meanings

4
crack cocainenounslangUScountable or uncountable
Crack cocaine, the smokable freebase form of cocaine.
Police seized a stash of candy during the night raid.
On the street, candy sells for a few dollars a rock.
Similarcrack
Note
Because the confectionery meaning is so common, context does all the work. Outside an obviously street setting, listeners will hear sweets.
5
nounobsolete
A unit of weight formerly used in southern India, equal to twenty maunds, roughly 500 pounds but varying by locality.
Note
A separate word that only looks like the sweet. It comes from Marathi khaṇḍī, and both words may trace back to the same Sanskrit root khaṇḍ, "to divide, break into pieces." It is now obsolete and belongs to older writing on southern Indian weights. Read any figure in candies with care, because the measure varied from place to place. Its plural is candies, the same as the sweet's.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
The weight term is a separate borrowing from Marathi khaṇḍī. en.wiktionary.org
Sanskrit khaṇḍ means to divide or break into pieces. en.wiktionary.org
The weight sense is obsolete and concerns historical southern Indian weights. en.wiktionary.org
The measure's value varied geographically. en.wikipedia.org
The weight term has the plural candies, like the sweet word. en.wiktionary.org
6
noun
An accessory such as a bracelet made from pony beads, linked with the rave scene.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of candy apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–4

The word goes back either to Sanskrit khaṇḍa ("piece, fragment, candied sugar"), from a root meaning "to break into pieces," or possibly to Proto-Dravidian *kaṇṭu (Tamil has a similar word, kaṇṭu, "hard candy"). From there it passed through Persian kand into Arabic qand ("rock candy") and the phrase sukkar qandī. That phrase became Old French sucre candi (literally "candied sugar") and then Middle English sugre candy.

Meaning 5

The Sanskrit root khaṇḍ ("to divide, break into pieces") produced khaṇḍana, which became Marathi khaṇḍī, the source of this word.