Word.ws English Dictionary

sweetbread

Syllables: sweet·breadUK/ˈswiːtbɹɛd//ˈswitˌbɹɛd/

sweetbread noun: the pancreas or thymus gland of an animal, especially a lamb or calf, as food.

sweetbread: the pancreas or thymus gland of an animal, especially a lamb or calf, as food
Image: H. Alexander Talbot, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

sweetbread (plural sweetbreads)

  1. The pancreas or thymus gland of an animal, especially a lamb or calf, as food.
    • SWEETBREAD SANDWICH: Cook sweetbreads until tender. When cold, remove skin, chop fine, season with salt and pepper, add one cup of finely chopped celery, and a dash of mayonnaise dressing; spread on thin slices of lightly buttered white bread. Cover with another slice and garnish with an olive.1909, Eva Greene Fuller, The Up-To-Date Sandwich Book: 400 Ways to Make a Sandwich, page 97
    • The pancreas of an animal when cooked for consumption is known as a sweetbread.2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 177
  2. Any of various other glands used as food, including the parotid gland, sublingual glands, ovaries, and testicles.

Noun (2)

sweetbread (plural sweetbreads)

  1. A sweetened type of bread.

sweetbread meaning in Tamil and Persian

sweetbread in Tamil

கன்றிறைச்சியுணவு, கன்றின் கணையக் கறி, கழுத்துக் கணையச் சுரப்பி

sweetbread in Persian

pancreas or thymus gland of an animal as food
خوشگوشت xoš-gušt

Synonyms of sweetbread

All synonyms of sweetbread

Forms of sweetbread

pluralsweetbreads

Origin of sweetbread

Apparently from sweet + bread, though the reason is not immediately evident. Possibly connected with Dutch zwezerik, whose etymology is also unclear.

Compound of sweet + bread.

Phrases with sweetbread

Questions about sweetbread

What does sweetbread mean?
Sweetbread means the pancreas or thymus gland of an animal, especially a lamb or calf, as food.
What is sweetbread in Tamil?
Sweetbread in Tamil is கன்றிறைச்சியுணவு, கன்றின் கணையக் கறி, கழுத்துக் கணையச் சுரப்பி. See Sweetbread meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is sweetbread?
Sweetbread is a noun.
How do you pronounce sweetbread?
Sweetbread is pronounced /ˈswiːtbɹɛd/ (UK).
What is the plural of sweetbread?
The plural of sweetbread is sweetbreads.

Words near sweetbread in the dictionary

  1. sweet-william
  2. sweet-williams
  3. sweetbay magnolia
  4. sweetbay magnolias
  5. sweetbox
  6. sweetbread
  7. sweetbreads
  8. sweetbriar
  9. sweetbriars
  10. sweetbrier
  11. sweetbriers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sweetbread (page history and authors); sweetbread (Tamil Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sweetbread.ogg.

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