cherry on top

English

WOTD – 6 December 2025

Etymology

An allusion to a cake being decorated on top with one or more cherries.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌt͡ʃɛɹi ɒn ˈtɒp/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌt͡ʃɛɹi ɑn ˈtɑp/

• Audio (General American):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ɒp
• Hyphenation: cher‧ry on top

Noun

cherry on top (plural cherries on top)

1. (idiomatic) Synonym of icing on the cake (“a thing which intensifies the appreciation of something already good, or (ironic) the regretting of something already bad”).

   Synonyms: cherry on the cake, frosting on the cake

   • 1980, Garson Kanin, chapter XLIX, in Smash, New York, N.Y.: Viking Books, published October 1980, →ISBN, page 426:

     To me—the doing is what counts. Success—fame or fortune—sure, those are the cherries on top. Try to find the joy in the doing.

   • 2016, Rachel Hauck, The Wedding Shop, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, →ISBN, page 70:

     The memories are the cherries on top.

   • 2022 November 21, David Hytner, “World Cup 2022: England open World Cup in style with Bukayo Saka double in 6–2 rout of Iran”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 August 2025:

     Everything is possible, [Gareth] Southgate had said on Sunday, as he sought to consign the dismal [UEFA] Nations League campaign to unwanted history. This was a display to fire optimism. There was even the cherry on top of a late sixth for Jack Grealish, who had entered as a substitute, from a pull-back from another replacement, Callum Wilson.

   • 2022 December 28, Christian Wolmar, “Annus Horribilus Must Mark a Turning Point for Our Railway”, in Rail, number 973, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 44:

     But at least investment was on the agenda. Now the state of the industry can be described as blancmange, an incoherent muddle without even a cherry on top. And that has not gone unnoticed.

Derived terms

• pretty please with a cherry on top

Translations

synonym of icing on the cake — see icing on the cake

Further reading

• Cherry on Top (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “the (also a) cherry on (the) top” under “cherry, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2025.
• “the cherry on top”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• necrotrophy