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Glite Dictionary
Neapolitan ice cream

Neapolitan ice cream

1 2.1
Ice cream with three or more side-by-side layers of different flavors like vanilla, chocolate and strawberry
  • noun
  • /ˌniːəˈpɒlɪtən aɪs kriːm/
translation icon : helado napolitano
  • She took a scoop of Neapolitan ice cream and savored the mix of flavors.

Literally, Dia says with some Neapolitan ice cream.

Examples

  • Individual slices of Neapolitan ice cream surrounded the cake like striped bricks.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • It's Neapolitan ice cream!

    Blog text (19)

  • It's like Neapolitan ice cream.

    This Is the End (2013)

  • It's like a Peach toned Neapolitan ice cream going on right now right here.

  • He smiled proudly and lifted up a carton of Neapolitan ice cream; the picture on the carton was smeared, and the colors looked like bad TV reception.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • The children enjoyed bowls of Neapolitan ice cream at the birthday party.

  • For dessert, we served Neapolitan ice cream, featuring chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry layers.

Synonyms

ice cream
vsNeapolitan ice cream
403 1.0

A cold sweet treat made from milk or cream in different flavors

is the specific multi-layered block variety rather than the general frozen dessert

Surface Forms

Neapolitan ice cream singular
Neapolitan ice creams plural

Morphology

Neapolitan + ice + cream

Knowing 'Neapolitan' (from Naples) together with 'ice' and 'cream' lets a learner infer this is an Italian-style ice cream, but it does not indicate the specific, conventional feature of three (distinct) side-by-side flavors in one block. The named-origin element makes part of the meaning transparent (origin/type) while the particular layered/multi-flavour format is lexicalized and not predictable, so the expression is only partially transparent to learners.

Etymology

Neapolitan ice cream gets its name from the city 'Naples' in Italy, where makers put different flavors side by side in one block and the idea travelled with Italian cooks to other countries. Imagine a slice with clear layers of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry — that picture explains why it means 'a block of ice cream with separate flavors side by side' today.