Meaning & use
coating sugar
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
A type of sugar with fairly large crystals, used to sprinkle on or cover baked goods and sweets.
Grammar: No plural; use it with words like some, a little, or a bag of.
Patterns
- sprinkle coating sugar on something
- cover something with coating sugar
Sprinkle coating sugar over the doughnuts while they are still warm.
The recipe calls for a handful of coating sugar to finish the cookies.
She rolled the soft sweets in coating sugar before putting them in paper cases.
Common combinations
- sprinkle coating sugar
- Sprinkle coating sugar over the cake before serving.
- roll something in coating sugar
- Roll the truffles in coating sugar for a crunchy outside.
- a bag of coating sugar
- I bought a bag of coating sugar for the bakery.
Synonyms and how they differ
- coarse sugar
- A general term for sugar with bigger crystals; coating sugar is one kind used for covering foods.
- sanding sugar
- Very similar, but sanding sugar is often even coarser and may be colored; coating sugar is a broader term.
Word family
Commonly confused: coating sugar or powdered sugar?
coating sugar vs powdered sugar
Powdered sugar (also called icing sugar) is ground very fine and used in icing; coating sugar has large, visible crystals used for sprinkling.
Practice
Which sentence uses "coating sugar" correctly?
Choose one answer.
Coating sugar is uncountable, so it cannot take "a" or a plural, and it is used with verbs like sprinkle. Option B fits because it uses the correct uncountable form and a natural verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “coating sugar”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.