cider
Pluralciders
- 1An unfiltered, non-alcoholic drink pressed from early-harvest apples, still cloudy with pulp and not fermented.
Like orange juice with the pulp left in, rather than the clear strained kind.
Every October the orchard presses gallons of cider from its early apples.
She poured the cloudy cider into mason jars to take home.
Note
North American usage shifts the default: in the US and Canada, plain cider can mean fresh-pressed juice, and sweet cider makes that unmistakable, while the fermented drink is hard cider. The line against apple juice is the pulp. Filter it out and the same liquid changes its name. Since Canada uses both meanings, putting hard or sweet in front of the word there settles which glass arrives.
- 2An alcoholic and often sparkling beverage produced by fermenting the juice of apples.
Like beer in a pub, but pressed from apples rather than brewed from grain.
The West Country is famous for its dry, sparkling cider.
They pressed and fermented their own cider every autumn on the farm.
Note
The original sense, true to the word's roots in strong drink: Middle English sider came through Old French and Medieval Latin sīcera from Greek síkera and Hebrew šēḵār, 'liquor', and it displaced the native English term apple wine. In Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada the bare word can mean the alcoholic drink. Where it might be ambiguous, hard cider makes it explicit. Its doublet cyser names the honey-sweetened version.
- 3A cup, glass, or individual portion of one of the apple- or pear-based drinks.
He raised his cider and proposed a toast to the newlyweds.
The waiter brought three ciders over to our table.
- 4A carbonated, non-alcoholic beverage made from apples or pears.
Like lemonade or other fizzy drinks, but pressed from orchard fruit.
The café serves a chilled, fizzy cider made from pears.
Bottles of fizzy cider lined the cooler next to the lemonade.
Note
Australia uses the word on both sides of the alcohol line. Alongside the fermented apple drink, cider there can be a fizzy soft drink, and it may be pressed from pears as well as apples. On a menu or a shop shelf, the setting usually tells you which is meant. If it does not, asking whether it is alcoholic is the safe way to order.
- 5A carbonated soft drink flavored with lemon and lime, containing no alcohol.
Korean convenience stores stock lemon-lime cider right next to the cola.
On a humid afternoon in Kyoto, she ordered a glass of cider, which tasted of citrus rather than apples.
Note
In Japan and South Korea the word has drifted furthest from its fruit. There it names a sweet lemon-lime soda with no apple and no alcohol in it. A traveler who orders cider expecting the fermented apple drink will be handed a soft drink instead. When describing it in English, calling it lemon-lime cider or lemon-lime soda keeps the two apart.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of cider apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Middle English sider, from Old French sidre (a drink made from fermented apples), from Medieval Latin sīcera, from Ancient Greek σίκερα (síkera, "fermented liquor, strong drink"), which came from Hebrew šēḵār ("liquor"). It is a doublet of cyser and displaced the native English term apple wine.