cream
/kɹiːm/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.62 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The butterfat or milkfat part of milk which rises to the top; this part when separated from the remainder.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The butterfat or milkfat part of milk which rises to the top; this part when separated from the remainder.
American usage; Countable; Uncountable
noun
The butterfat or milkfat part of milk which rises to the top; this part when separated from the remainder.
British usage; Countable; Uncountable
noun
The butterfat or milkfat part of milk which rises to the top; this part when separated from the remainder.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Take 100 ml of cream and 50 grams of sugar…"
- "You may have noticed that any time that filling is mentioned on Oreo packaging, it's called "creme." This is no typo. Technically, the creamy filling inside an Oreo is not cream at all: The recipe used actually contains no dairy; as such, the FDA prohibits Nabisco from labeling the product as "cream.""
- "I take my coffee with two cream and three sugar."
- "Hundreds of examples remain, still following the same general pattern—maroon, green or chocolate brown, for example, from ground to waist level, then a stale Cheddar cheese shade of cream above."
- "Originally the cream filling in Oreo cookies was made with pork lard."
- "the cream of the crop"
Etymology
From Middle English creime, creme, from Old French creme, cresme, blend of Late Latin chrisma (“ointment”) (from Ancient Greek χρῖσμα (khrîsma, “unguent”)), and Late Latin crāmum (“cream”), from Gaulish *crama (compare Welsh cramen (“scab, skin”), Breton crammen), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krama- (compare Middle Irish screm (“surface, skin”), Dutch schram (“abrasion”), Lithuanian kramas (“scurf”)). Doublet of crema and crème. Displaced native Old English rēam (“cream”) (> modern ream). Figurative sense of "most excellent element or part" appears from 1581. Verb meaning "to beat, thrash, wreck" is 1929, U.S. colloquial. The U.S. standard of identity is from 21 CFR 131.3(a).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kɹiːm/
- British English: /kɹiːm/
Usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- American usage
- British usage
- Informal
- Slang
- Obsolete
- Transitive verb