Meaning & use
maple syrup
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
A sweet, thick, golden-brown liquid made from the sap of maple trees, eaten especially on pancakes.
Grammar: Uncountable: say 'some maple syrup' or 'a bottle of maple syrup', not 'a maple syrup'.
Patterns
- pour maple syrup on something
- maple syrup on pancakes
He poured maple syrup over his pancakes and ate them quickly.
Real maple syrup from Canada is darker and more expensive than the cheap kind.
We bought a bottle of maple syrup at the farmers' market.
Common combinations
- pure maple syrup
- The label says it is pure maple syrup, with nothing added.
- pour maple syrup
- She poured maple syrup carefully so it would not run off the plate.
- a bottle of maple syrup
- There is a bottle of maple syrup in the cupboard.
- maple syrup on pancakes
- Maple syrup on pancakes is a traditional breakfast in North America.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pancake syrup
- Often means a cheaper flavored syrup that may contain little or no real maple; use it only when you do not mean the genuine product.
Word family
- maple noun
- The tree whose sap is used to make the syrup, or the wood from it.
Commonly confused: maple syrup or corn syrup?
maple syrup vs corn syrup
A sweet liquid made from corn starch, used in many foods; it is not the same as maple syrup and does not come from trees.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses 'maple syrup' correctly.
Choose one answer.
'Maple syrup' is uncountable, so it can be spread or poured but not counted as 'a maple syrup' or 'two maple syrups'. Option 1 and option 3 also treat it as a countable noun, which is wrong.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “maple syrup”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.