From Middle English sugre, sucre, from Middle French sucre, from Old French çucre (circa 13th century), from roa-oit zucchero (or another vernacular of Italy), from Arabic سُكَّر, from Persian شکر, from Pahlavi, 𐫢𐫞𐫡, from Sanskrit शर्करा.

• (RP) IPA: /ˈʃʊɡə(ɹ)/
• (America) enPR: sho͝ogʹər, IPA: /ˈʃʊɡɚ/

sugar

1. (uncountable) Sucrose in the form of small crystals, obtained from sugar cane or sugar beet and used to sweeten food and drink.
2. (countable) A specific variety of sugar.
3. (countable, chemistry) Any of various small carbohydrates that are used by organisms to store energy.

   Hypernyms: Thesaurus:carbohydrate

4. (countable) A small serving of this substance (typically about one teaspoon), used to sweeten a drink.

   He usually has his coffee white with one sugar.

5. (countable) A term of endearment.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:sweetheart

   I'll be with you in a moment, sugar.

6. (uncountable, slang) Affection shown by kisses or kissing.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:buss

7. (chiefly, southern US, slang, uncountable) Effeminacy in a male, often implying homosexuality.

   I think John has a little bit of sugar in him.

8. (uncountable, informal) Diabetes.
9. (dated) Anything resembling sugar in taste or appearance, especially in chemistry.

   Sugar of lead (lead acetate) is a poisonous white crystalline substance with a sweet taste.

10. Compliment or flattery used to disguise or render acceptable something obnoxious; honeyed or soothing words.
11. (US, slang, uncountable) Heroin.

    Synonyms: Thesaurus:heroin

12. (US, slang, uncountable, dated) Money.
13. (programming) Syntactic sugar.
    • 2005, Bruce Ian Mills, Theoretical Introduction to Programming, page 180:

      However, this bookkeeping is much less local syntax and sugar.

see sugar/translations

sugar (sugars, present participle sugaring; simple past and past participle sugared)

1. (transitive) To add sugar to; to sweeten with sugar.

   John heavily sugars his coffee.

2. (transitive) To make (something unpleasant) seem less so.

   She has a gift for sugaring what would otherwise be harsh words.

3. (US, Canada, regional) In making maple sugar, to complete the process of boiling down the syrup till it is thick enough to crystallize; to approach or reach the state of granulation; with the preposition off.
4. (entomology) To apply sugar to trees or plants in order to catch moths.
5. (programming, transitive) To rewrite (source code) using syntactic sugar.
6. (transitive) To compliment (a person).
7. To remove hair using a paste of sugar, water and lemon juice.

• (add sugar to) sweeten
• (make less unpleasant) sweeten, sugar-coat

• French: sucrer
• German: zuckern
• Italian: zuccherare
• Portuguese: açucarar
• Russian: са́харить
• Spanish: azucarar, endulcorar, endulzar

• German: versüßen
• Italian: zuccherare
• Portuguese: açucarar, suavizar
• Russian: подсласти́ть
• Spanish: azucarar, endulzar

1. (minced oath) Shit!

   Oh, sugar!

• French: zut, fichtre
• German: Scheibenkleister, Scheibenhonig
• Portuguese: mkrda, ferca, herfa, merca
• Russian: блин
• Spanish: jolines

• As a Hungarian - surname, from the adjective sugár.
• As a German - and Jewish surname, semantic loan from German Zucker (“sugar”).

1. (World War II era, joint US/RAF) radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter S.

   Synonyms: Sierra

1. Surname.