What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Donut vs Cupcake - What's the difference?

donut | cupcake |

As nouns the difference between donut and cupcake

is that donut is a deep-fried piece of dough or batter, commonly made in a toroidal or ellipsoidal shape, and mixed with various sweeteners and flavors, sometimes filled with jelly, custard or cream while cupcake is a small cake baked in a paper container shaped like a cup, often with icing on top.

donut

English

Alternative forms

* doughnut

Noun

(en noun)
  • (North America) A deep-fried piece of dough or batter, commonly made in a toroidal or ellipsoidal shape, and mixed with various sweeteners and flavors, sometimes filled with jelly, custard or cream.
  • *1900 , (George Wilbur Peck), Peck’s bad boy and his pa, Stanton and Van Vliet, p. 107:
  • *:…Pa said he guessed he hadn’t got much appetite, and he would just drink a cup of coffee and eat a donut.
  • (North America) Anything in the shape of a torus
  • (North America, automobile) a peel-out or skid-mark in the shape of donut; a 360-degree skid.
  • (North America) A spare tire, smaller and less durable than a full-sized tire, only intended for temporary use.
  • A toroidal cushion typically used by hemorrhoid patients.

    • Usage notes

    Rare until 1950s, increasingly popular since then,“ donut, doughnut]”, Google Ngram viewer possibly influenced by spread of (w, Dunkin' Donuts) (founded 1950).“[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/09/google_ngram_viewer_a_language_time_machine.html The Language Time Machine: Google’s Ngram Viewer gave us a new way to explore history, but has it led to any real discoveries?”, by Elizabeth Weingarten, Slate, Sept. 9, 2013

    References

    ----

    cupcake

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small cake baked in a paper container shaped like a cup, often with icing on top.
  • (slang) An attractive young woman.
  • * 2006 , Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day , Vintage 2007, p. 604:
    • Whatever else this cupcake might be up to, she was no piker.
  • (slang) A weak or effeminate man.
  • (dated) (Used as a term of endearment)
  • * 2010 , Kimberly Cates, The Perfect Match
    • “Listen, cupcake ,” Cash tried to soothe. “Sometimes when grownups get mad, they say things they don't mean. I'm sure your mother—”

    Synonyms

    * (small cake) fairy cake