chocolate
Pluralchocolates (some meanings)
Pluralchocolates (some meanings)
Formschocolates, chocolating, chocolated
- 1A food made from ground, roasted cocoa beans, usually sweetened and shaped into bars or blocks.
The factory turns raw cocoa beans into chocolate by the ton.
Dark chocolate contains more cocoa than the milk kind.
UsageSay a bar of chocolate or a piece of chocolate; a chocolate usually means one sweet.
- 2Made of or containing chocolate.
The recipe calls for a chocolate sponge layered with cream.
These chocolate cookies practically melt in your mouth.
- 3A single, small piece of confectionery made from or coated in chocolate.
Each chocolate in the box had a different filling.
He picked out the dark chocolates first.
UsageCommon phrase: a box of chocolates. Some chocolates means separate pieces; some chocolate means an amount of the food.
Similarbonbon
Note
Harry E. Wedeck's Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs (1961) has Madame de Pompadour fond of chocolates spiced with vanilla and amber.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Harry E. Wedeck's Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs says Madame de Pompadour was fond of chocolates spiced with vanilla and amber. en.wiktionary.org
- 4A beverage prepared by stirring chocolate into boiling water or milk until it dissolves.
After skating, we warmed up with mugs of hot chocolate and marshmallows.
The café serves a thick Spanish-style chocolate in tiny cups.
UsageUsually hot chocolate, served in a mug or ordered as a cup of hot chocolate.
Similarcocoa
Note
Plain chocolate can name the drink without hot in front: Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Ethel Churchill (1837) says it "came in those fairy cups of India china."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Ethel Churchill is by Letitia Elizabeth Landon and was first published in 1837. en.wikisource.org
- The novel's narration contains the quoted wording about chocolate being served in cups. en.wikisource.org
- 5Having a dark, reddish-brown color.
The cabinet was stained a chocolate shade that matched the floor.
He bred chocolate rabbits with thick, soft fur.
- 6The deep reddish brown of chocolate, also known as chocolate brown.
The designer chose a deep chocolate for the living room walls.
Her eyes were a soft chocolate flecked with gold.
Less common meanings
- 7
- 8Black; relating to ethnic groups with dark skin pigmentation.
She was a chocolate honey with all the assets necessary to never have to work hard to pay her bills.
2005, Patrick Goines, Unfinished BusinessIf you are as chocolate as an African queen, do you really think you'll look better as a bottle blonde?
2011, Stephanie Stokes Oliver, Daily CornbreadUsageCan sound affectionate or objectifying, depending on who says it and to whom.
Note
Here the adjective is graded along a range of skin tones, which is why it turns up in comparisons. Stephanie Stokes Oliver's Daily Cornbread (1999) writes "as chocolate as an African queen," and Delores J. Dillard places it on a scale running from fair to mahogany.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Stephanie Stokes Oliver wrote Daily Cornbread. penguinrandomhouse.com
- Daily Cornbread contains the quoted comparison. en.wiktionary.org
- Delores J. Dillard describes a complexion range from fair to mahogany. en.wiktionary.org
- 9A Black person, especially one with dark skin.
“How is my sexy chocolate?” Mark says on the other end.
2011, Ella Campbell, Torn: The Melissa Williams Story"I suppose you have some of your sweet chocolates working for you?" Barney nodded.
1967, James David Horan, The Right Image: A Novel of the Men who Make CandidatesUsageThe neutral choice is a Black person, or the person's name.
Note
Slang that cuts both ways. It works as an endearment ("my sexy chocolate") and also in talk that treats people as goods: James David Horan's The Right Image (1967) has "some of your sweet chocolates working for you." The candy imagery is the point, and it makes the word easy to hear as objectifying.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The quoted endearment is attested. en.wiktionary.org
- James David Horan wrote The Right Image, published in 1967. archivescollection.anu.edu.au
- The Right Image contains the quoted words. en.wiktionary.org
- 10To treat blood agar by heating it so that the red blood cells in the medium are broken open.
The lab chocolates the agar to culture bacteria that won't grow on standard plates.
It is a chocolated blood agar but here whole horse blood is used.
2000, Ochei Et Al, Medical Laboratory Science : Theory And PracticeNote
A microbiology verb. Heating blood agar breaks the red cells open and frees growth factors such as NAD for organisms that need them. Its forms do most of the work: chocolated blood agar names the finished medium, and chocolating names the process. Haemophilus influenzae Protocols (2002), edited by Mark A. Herbert and colleagues, incubates a mixture at 75°C "until chocolating has taken place."
- 11A cat with a coat of rich chocolate brown.
- 12Blackness; the quality or state of having dark skin or being of Black ethnicity.
I can consume as much of you as I want to without gaining weight. Sexy chocolate is what you are.
2009, Evangeline Holloway, The Reincarnation of Love
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
English chocolate came via Spanish chocolate from a Nahuatl word, often given as chocolātl (whose second part reflects Classical Nahuatl ātl, "water"). Dakin and Wichmann suggest the original form was chicolātl, with chicol- referring to a special wooden stick used to prepare chocolate, while another theory traces the prefix to Yucatec Maya chocol ("hot").
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts
- English chocolate came through Spanish chocolate from Nahuatl, conventionally identified as chocolātl. en.wiktionary.org
- The second element reflects Classical Nahuatl ātl, meaning water. nahuatl.wired-humanities.org
- Karttunen reports its absence from particular sources, rather than asserting its absence from Nahuatl until the mid-18th century. nahuatl.wired-humanities.org
- The root already appears in chocolanamácac, meaning chocolate seller, in Chimalpáhin’s account concerning 1612. estudioshistoricos.inah.gob.mx
- Dakin and Wichmann propose an earlier form chicolātl with an element meaning beater stick. en.wiktionary.org
- The proposed beater stick is a wooden implement used in preparing chocolate. whereareyouquetzalcoatl.com
- Another proposed etymology derives the initial element from Yucatec Maya chocol, glossed as hot. en.wiktionary.org