muffin
/ˈmʌf.ɪn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.35 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A type of flattish bun, usually cut in two horizontally, toasted and spread with butter, etc., before being eaten.
British usage
noun
A cupcake-shaped baked good (for example of cornbread, banana bread, or a chocolate dough), sometimes glazed but typically without frosting, eaten especially for breakfast (in contrast to a cupcake, which is a dessert).
noun
Example Sentences
- "[…] but he had still at intervals a kind listener in Mrs. Phillips, and was by her watchfulness, most abundantly supplied with coffee and muffin."
- "We take a less gloomy view of our errors now our father confessor listens to us over his egg and coffee. We are more distinctly conscious that rude penances are out of the question for gentlemen in an enlightened age, and that mortal sin is not incompatible with an appetite for muffins."
- "It was felt at once that the mouth did not come over from Sleswig with a band of Saxon pirates whose lips met like the two halves of a muffin."
- "Little did poor Doctor Walker imagine as he sat at his breakfast-table next morning that the two sweet girls who sat on either side of him were deep in a conspiracy, and that he, munching innocently at his muffins, was the victim against whom their wiles were planned."
- "“A cup of tea and a muffin, please,” he ordered."
- "Aubrey got a bowl of soup, a cup of coffee, beef stew, and bran muffins, and took them to an empty seat by the window. He ate with one eye on the street."
Etymology
From earlier moofin, probably a diminutive of Low German Muffe ("small cake"; Muffen (plural)), from Middle Low German muffe (“small pastry”). An alternative, and phonologically less plausible theory suggests a connection to Old French (pain) moflet (“roll”, literally “soft (bread)”). Sense “vulva” influenced by muff.
Word Breakdown
- Root: Muffe
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Food.