Sherbert or sherbet?
sherbert is a noun meaning “Alternative form of sherbet (“food of frozen fruit juice with a dairy product…”; sherbet is a noun meaning “A dessert of frozen fruit juice with a dairy product such as milk added; a…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) sherbet is about 4.0 times as common as sherbert.
What is the difference between sherbert and sherbet?
| sherbert | sherbet | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | USproscribedAlternative form of sherbet (“food of frozen fruit juice with a dairy product added”) | A dessert of frozen fruit juice with a dairy product such as milk added; a sorbet with dairy ingredients An effervescent powder made of bicarbonate of soda, sugar and flavourings, intended to be eaten alone or mixed with water to make a drink |
| Example | none recorded | Tea is becoming a favourite drink in Turkey, not instead of coffee, but of the sherbet or cool drinks that are handed to guests; it comes… |
| Forms | sherberts | sherbets |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈʃɜː.bət/ /ˈʃɜː.bɪt/ /ˈʃɝ.bət/ |
| In writing | about once in every 13 million words | about once in every 3 million words |
Sources: sherbert and sherbet in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of sherbert and sherbet
sherbert
- 1
USproscribedAlternative form of sherbet (“food of frozen fruit juice with a dairy product added”)
sherbet
- 1
A dessert of frozen fruit juice with a dairy product such as milk added; a sorbet with dairy ingredients
- 2
An effervescent powder made of bicarbonate of soda, sugar and flavourings, intended to be eaten alone or mixed with water to make a drink
- 3
A traditional West and South Asian sweet drink prepared from fruits or flower petals
Tea is becoming a favourite drink in Turkey, not instead of coffee, but of the sherbet or cool drinks that are handed to guests; it comes generally from Russia, and although a…
- 4
AustraliaUKslangAn alcoholic drink, especially beer
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, sherbert or sherbet?
sherbert appears about once in every 13 million words; sherbet about once in every 3 million words.
sherbert about once in every 13 million wordssherbet about once in every 3 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search sherbert vs sherbet?
“sherbert vs sherbet” is searched about 9,900 times a month on Google and 680 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“sherbet vs sherbert”, “sherbert or sherbet”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.