muffin

A muffin is usually a small, single-serving baked bread or cake, often eaten at breakfast or as a snack. It can be sweet, like a blueberry or chocolate chip one, or savory, like a corn or cheese one. In American English, this is the main meaning people think of.

The word can also point to an English muffin, which is a flat, round bread that you split and toast. And in a warm, playful way, people sometimes use it as a nickname for someone sweet or cute.

The word "muffin" usually brings to mind a small baked item with a soft inside and a rounded top, the kind you might pick up with coffee in the morning or eat warm with butter. In modern everyday English, this is often the American-style muffin: a single-serving quick bread that can be sweet or savory. Blueberry, bran, chocolate chip, corn, and cheese are all common examples.

There is also the English muffin, which is quite different. It is a flat, round yeast bread, usually split in half and toasted. You often see it served with butter, jam, eggs, or breakfast sandwiches. Because both foods share the same name, context usually tells you which one a speaker means.

The word has also grown into a few informal uses. Someone might call a child or partner "muffin" as a sweet nickname. You may also hear "muffin top," a casual and sometimes rude term for flesh that shows over a tight waistband, and "stud muffin," an informal, somewhat dated term for an attractive man. So the word can describe food, affection, or slang, but its most common meaning is still the familiar baked breakfast treat.