piernik

piernik noun: a Polish sweet-baked good, traditionally made from flour and honey.

Image: Marcin Floryan, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

piernik (countable and uncountable, plural pierniks)

A Polish sweet-baked good, traditionally made from flour and honey.
- The Torun piernik is known the world over, as early as the 14th century, St. Catherine’s Order of Nuns in Torun attained such fame that their “piernik cakes” became known as “Katarzynki” (little Catherines). […] There is an old Polish saying that best depicts the high quality of the Torun piernik...1988 December 7, Thomas Kopetskie, “Polish Christmas: Feast of St. Nicholas is a slight respite from the fasting of Advent”, in Standard-Speaker, volume 122, number 34,892, Hazleton, Pa., →ISSN, page...
- The piernik will keep, and it is traditionally kept, for several months. […] A piece of piernik is added to the sauce for Christmas eve carp (page 30) in old recipes for this dish. […] The piernik is cooked when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out free of any sticky mixture. Cool the...1990, Bridget Jones, “Cakes, Pastries and Biscuits”, in Recipes from a Polish Kitchen, New York, N.Y.: Gallery Books, →ISBN, page 87, columns 1–2

The Torun piernik is known the world over, as early as the 14th century, St.1988 December 7, Thomas Kopetskie, “Polish Christmas: Feast of St. Nicholas is a slight respite from the fasting of Advent”, in...
Cool the piernik on a wire rack, then wrap in cling film (plastic wrap) and a plastic bag to mature.1990, Bridget Jones, “Cakes, Pastries and Biscuits”, in Recipes from a Polish Kitchen, New York, N.Y.: Gallery Books, →ISBN, page 87...
In their family, any special occasion calls for piernik.2001, Diana Thrift, “A Tale of Two Christmas Cakes”, in Whispers from Heaven for the Christmas Spirit, Lincolnwood, Ill.: Publications...
Toruń celebrates a yearly Festiwal Piernika (Piernik Festival) organized by the Fabryka Cukiernicza “Kopernik” (Copernicus Confectionery Factory), and even boasts a piernik museum.2015, Oscar E. Swan with Ewa Kołaczek-Fila, Kaleidoscope of Poland: A Cultural Encyclopedia (Pitt Series in Russian and East European...

plural	pierniks

Borrowed from Polish piernik.

What does piernik mean?: Piernik means a Polish sweet-baked good, traditionally made from flour and honey.
How do you use piernik in a sentence?: The Torun piernik is known the world over, as early as the 14th century, St.
What part of speech is piernik?: Piernik is a noun.
What is the plural of piernik?: The plural of piernik is pierniks.

Adapted from Wiktionary: piernik (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “piernik.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/piernik. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.