sweetener

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English sweeten

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English sweetener

From sweeten + -er (agent suffix).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

sweetener (plural sweeteners)

1. Something added to food to sweeten its taste, especially an artificial substitute for sugar.
   • 2023 May 15, April Rubin, “World Health Organization Warns Against Using Artificial Sweeteners”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 28 August 2023:

     Some examples of the sweeteners include aspartame, saccharin, sucralose and stevia. The W.H.O.’s announcement contradicts previous studies that have said these sweeteners don’t offer any health benefits but also do not cause harm.

   • 2025 January 15, “FDA moves to eliminate carcinogenic Red 3 from foods”, in Center for Science in the Public Interest‎^[2], archived from the original on 10 November 2025:

     Even as FDA works to develop that plan, consumers continue to be exposed to unsafe food chemicals including not just dyes but also the artificial sweetener aspartame, the white pigment titanium dioxide, the preservative propylparaben, and the phthalate food packaging chemicals, according to CSPI.

2. (informal) Something given or added to a deal to sweeten another's attitude, especially a bribe or kickback.
3. (slang) A shill bidder at an auction.

Synonyms

• (gift or bribe): douceur; see gift and Thesaurus:bribe

Derived terms

• artificial sweetener

Translations

food additive

• Afrikaans: versoeter
• Albanian: sheqer diabetik m
• Arabic: مُحَلِّيّ m (muḥalliyy)
• Armenian: շաքարի փոխարինիչ (šakʻari pʻoxariničʻ)
• Azerbaijani: dadlandırıcı
• Basque: gozagarri
• Belarusian: падсаладжа́льнік m (padsaladžálʹnik), падсало́днік m (padsalódnik)
• Bengali: উৎকোচ (bn) (utkōc)
• Bulgarian: подслади́тел m (podsladítel)
• Catalan: edulcorant (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 甜味劑 / 甜味剂 (zh) (tiánwèijì), 糖精 (zh) (tángjīng)

• Czech: sladidlo (cs) m
• Danish: sødestof
• Dutch: zoetstof (nl)
• Esperanto: dolĉigilo
• Estonian: magusaine, magustaja
• Finnish: makeutusaine (fi)
• French: édulcorant (fr) m
• Galician: adozante (gl) m
• German: Süßstoff (de) m
• Greek: γλυκαντικό (el) m (glykantikó)
• Haitian Creole: edulkoran
• Hebrew: ממתיק m (mamtik)
• Hindi: स्वीटनर (svīṭnar)
• Hungarian: édesítőszer (hu)
• Icelandic: sætuefni m
• Indonesian: pemanis (id)
• Irish: milseoir
• Italian: dolcificante (it) m
• Japanese: 甘味料 (ja) (かんみりょう, kanmiryō)
• Korean: 감미료(甘味料) (gammiryo)
• Kyrgyz: таттуулук (ky) (tattuuluk)
• Latin: dulcedo m
• Latvian: saldinātājs m
• Lithuanian: saldiklis m
• Macedonian: засладувач m (zasladuvač)
• Malay: pemanis
• Maltese: ħlewwa
• Manx: ooreyder
• Mongolian: амт оруулагч (amt oruulagč)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: søtningsmiddel n, søtningsstoff n, søtstoff n

  Nynorsk: søtstoff n

• Pashto: خواږه (ps) (khowaga)
• Persian: شیرین کننده (fa)
• Polish: słodzik (pl) m
• Portuguese: adoçante (pt) m, edulcorante (pt) m
• Romanian: îndulcitor (ro), zaharină (ro) f
• Russian: подсласти́тель (ru) m (podslastítelʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: mìlseachd
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: заслађивач m

  Latin: zaslađivač m

• Shona: shuga
• Slovak: sladidlo n
• Slovene: sladilo n
• Sotho: natefisa tatso
• Spanish: edulcorante (es) m, endulzante m
• Swedish: sötningsmedel (sv)
• Tagalog: pangpatamis
• Tamil: இனிக்கும் (iṉikkum)
• Telugu: తియ్యని (te) (tiyyani)
• Thai: น้ำตาลเทียม (náamtaan thiiam)
• Turkish: tatlandırıcı
• Ukrainian: підсоло́джувач m (pidsolódžuvač)
• Urdu: سویٹنر (svīṭnar)
• Uzbek: shakar oʻrnini, bosuvchi modda
• Vietnamese: chất ngọt
• Xhosa: nangoku