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Glite Dictionary
jelly bean

jelly bean

15 1.0
A small bean-shaped candy with a soft sweet center and a hard sugar shell
  • noun
  • /ˈdʒɛli bin/
translation icon : golosina
  • Enjoy a jelly bean.
  • jar of jelly beans
  • bag of jelly beans
  • jelly bean flavors

I, I mainline Jelly beans, what's wrong with me?

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Examples

  • All I've had to eat for the past six days are Gummi Bears, jelly beans and candy corns.

    Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)

  • The birthday girl was thrilled with her wacky jelly bean rainbow cake and completely amazed to see the colors inside it!

    Blog text (31)

  • I might have some of these Jelly beans as well.

  • - Would you care for a jelly bean? - Oh, thank you.

    Puss in Boots (2011)

  • I brought you jelly beans.

    Reagan (2024)

  • I bought you a bag of your favorite lemonade jelly beans.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • I love jelly beans.

    Detention (2012)

  • He was a dark-haired man who kept a jar of jelly beans on his desk.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • I always counted the multicolored jelly beans in their large jars, just in case there'd be a contest to guess the number.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Would you like to try a jelly bean? They're my favorite treat!

Synonyms

candy
vsjelly bean
  • US
863 1.0

A small sweet made from sugar, often with chocolate or nuts

refers to a small oval sweet with a soft gel center and glazed shell
jellybean
vsjelly bean
9 1.0

A small bean-shaped candy with a chewy center and a bright hard shell

has a softer gel center and a sugar-glazed outer shell

How Chewy

taffy
  • US
16 4.2
gummy
32 1.0
jelly bean
15 1.0
hard candy
  • US
7 1.0

Surface Forms

jelly bean singular
jelly beans plural

Morphology

jelly + bean

The noun is directly compositional: 'jelly' (a sweet, gel-like substance) combined with 'bean' (a seed/bean shape) describes a bean-shaped sweet made of or filled with jelly. This ingredient+shape compounding is common and therefore a B1 learner who knows both constituents would very likely infer the correct referent.

Etymology

Jelly bean likely gets its name from the candy's look: a tiny bean shape with a soft jelly center inside a shiny sugar shell. So the simple picture of a little bean filled with jelly explains why the phrase means this small, colorful candy today.