cupcake C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary US /ˈkʌpˌkeɪk/ UK /ˈkʌpˌkeɪk/ See IPA manual Meanings 1 noun a small cake baked in a cup-shaped container She frosted each cupcake with swirls of pink icing. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 noun · a small cake baked in a... fairy cakepatty cakebun Word family Related forms cupcake Etymology AI details An American English compound (early 19th century) of 'cup' + 'cake', so named either for being baked in cups or measured by the cupful. cuppe Old English View etymology graph -> Topics General Vocabulary External links Google Images Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary # cupcake **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** noun **IPA (US):** /ˈkʌpˌkeɪk/ **IPA (UK):** /ˈkʌpˌkeɪk/ ## Meanings 1. a small cake baked in a cup-shaped container ## Examples - She frosted each cupcake with swirls of pink icing. ## Synonyms - fairy cake - patty cake - bun ## Related Forms - cup - cake ## Roots and Affixes - Root: cuppe ## Etymology An American English compound (early 19th century) of 'cup' + 'cake', so named either for being baked in cups or measured by the cupful. ## AI Etymology Cupcake is an American English compound (early 19th century) of 'cup' + 'cake', so named either for being baked in cups or measured by the cupful. The immediate etymological form is Old English cuppe. In present use as a noun, it means "a small cake baked in a cup-shaped container", keeping the historical formation close to the word's ordinary semantic work. As a compound, its meaning is assembled from the two visible parts rather than from an opaque borrowing. Related words include cup and cake. The surrounding word family keeps the same base visible in cup and cake, showing how the headword belongs to a larger cluster rather than standing alone. ## Topics - General Vocabulary markdown