Word.ws English Dictionary

ratafia

/ˌɹætəˈfiːə/

ratafia noun: a liqueur or cordial flavored with peach or cherry kernels, bitter almonds, or other fruits.

Noun

ratafia (countable and uncountable, plural ratafias)

  1. A liqueur or cordial flavored with peach or cherry kernels, bitter almonds, or other fruits.
    • “Stop that there infernal screeching!” said a couple of ladies, who were sipping ratafia in company with two pretty fellows.1839, William Makepeace Thackeray, Catherine: A Story
    • Steeped cucumber ratafia with Pimm's and Sprite is garnished with a squash blossom at T'afia in Houston.2007 August 29, Pete Wells, “Bottling the Bounty of the Season”, in New York Times
  2. (countable) A kind of biscuit made with ratafia essence and almond or apricot kernels.
    • Mrs. Chaloner ordered wine-biscuits and olives, and gave Mr. Freely to understand that she should find his shop a great convenience. So did the doctor’s wife, and so did Mrs. Gate, at the large carding-mill, who, having high connexions frequently visiting her, might be expected to have a large...1864, George Eliot, chapter II, in Brother Jacob
    Synonyms:
    ratafia biscuit

Synonyms of ratafia

Forms of ratafia

pluralratafias

Origin of ratafia

Borrowed from Creole French ratafia, from the Latin phrase rata fiat (conventio) (“the deal is made”), a drinking toast expression to celebrate a deal or an agreement. Or, sharing an Arabic origin with arak.

Phrases with ratafia

Words that rhyme with ratafia

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ratafia

What does ratafia mean?
Ratafia means a liqueur or cordial flavored with peach or cherry kernels, bitter almonds, or other fruits.
What part of speech is ratafia?
Ratafia is a noun.
How do you pronounce ratafia?
Ratafia is pronounced /ˌɹætəˈfiːə/.
What is the plural of ratafia?
The plural of ratafia is ratafias.

Words near ratafia in the dictionary

  1. ratable
  2. ratables
  3. ratably
  4. ratafee
  5. ratafees
  6. ratafia
  7. ratafia biscuit
  8. ratafia biscuits
  9. ratafias
  10. Ratagnon
  11. Ratagnons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ratafia (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Neøn-ratafia.wav.

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