Candy vs. Sugar — What's the Difference?

A small portion of food eaten between meals.

A substance used to sweeten food or drink.

Frequently given as a present during holidays.

Used to extend the shelf life of foods.

Sweet food made primarily of sugar and often combined with fruit or nuts.

Provides quick energy due to its carbohydrate content.

A sweet delight often enjoyed on special occasions.

A component part of any dish.

Often served at the end of a meal.

Traded globally and crucial in the food industry.

Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies (Australian English, New Zealand English), is a confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, called sugar confectionery, encompasses any sweet confection, including chocolate, chewing gum, and sugar candy.

Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Table sugar, granulated sugar, or regular sugar, refers to sucrose, a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose.

A rich sweet confection made with sugar and often flavored or combined with fruits or nuts.

A sweet crystalline or powdered substance, white when pure, consisting of sucrose obtained mainly from sugarcane and sugar beets and used in many foods, drinks, and medicines to improve their taste. Also called table sugar.

A piece of such a confection.

Any of a class of water-soluble crystalline carbohydrates, including sucrose and lactose, having a characteristically sweet taste and classified as monosaccharides, disaccharides, and trisaccharides.

(Slang) An illicit drug, especially one, such as cocaine, that has a sugary appearance or a drug in pill form, such as MDMA.

A unit, such as a lump or cube, in which sugar is dispensed or taken.

To cook, preserve, saturate, or coat with sugar or syrup

(Slang) Sweetheart. Used as a term of endearment.

Edible, sweet-tasting confectionery containing sugar, or sometimes artificial sweeteners, and often flavored with fruit, chocolate, nuts, herbs and spices, or artificial flavors.

To coat, cover, or sweeten with sugar.

A piece of confectionery of this kind.

To make less distasteful or more appealing.

Crack cocaine.

To form sugar.

(uncountable) An accessory (bracelet, etc.) made from pony beads, associated with the rave scene.

To form granules; granulate.

(obsolete) A unit of mass used in southern India, equal to twenty maunds, roughly equal to 500 pounds avoirdupois but varying locally.

To make sugar or syrup from sugar maple sap. Often used with off.

(cooking) To cook in, or coat with, sugar syrup.

(uncountable) Sucrose in the form of small crystals, obtained from sugar cane or sugar beet and used to sweeten food and drink.

(intransitive) To have sugar crystals form in or on.

(countable) A specific variety of sugar.

(intransitive) To be formed into candy; to solidify in a candylike form or mass.

Any of various small carbohydrates that are used by organisms to store energy.

To conserve or boil in sugar; as, to candy fruits; to candy ginger.

(countable) A small serving of this substance (typically about one teaspoon), used to sweeten a drink.

To make sugar crystals of or in; to form into a mass resembling candy; as, to candy sirup.

(countable) A term of endearment.

To incrust with sugar or with candy, or with that which resembles sugar or candy.

A kiss.

To have sugar crystals form in or on; as, fruits preserved in sugar candy after a time.

Diabetes.

To be formed into candy; to solidify in a candylike form or mass.

(dated) Anything resembling sugar in taste or appearance, especially in chemistry.

Any sweet, more or less solid article of confectionery, especially those prepared in small bite-sized pieces or small bars, having a wide variety of shapes, consistencies, and flavors, and manufactured in a variety of ways. It is often flavored or colored, or covered with chocolate, and sometimes contains fruit, nuts, etc.; it is often made by boiling sugar or molasses to the desired consistency, and than crystallizing, molding, or working in the required shape. Other types may consist primarily of chocolate or a sweetened gelatin. The term may be applied to a single piece of such confection or to the substance of which it is composed.

Compliment or flattery used to disguise or render acceptable something obnoxious; honeyed or soothing words.

Cocaine.

Heroin.

A weight, at Madras 500 pounds, at Bombay 560 pounds.

Money.

A rich sweet made of flavored sugar and often combined with fruit or nuts

(programming) syntactic sugar.

Coat with something sweet, such as a hard sugar glaze

(transitive) To add sugar to; to sweeten with sugar.

(transitive) To make (something unpleasant) seem less so.

In making maple sugar, to complete the process of boiling down the syrup till it is thick enough to crystallize; to approach or reach the state of granulation; with the preposition off.

(entomology) To apply sugar to trees or plants in order to catch moths.

To rewrite (source code) using syntactic sugar.

(transitive) To compliment (a person).

To remove hair using a paste of sugar, water, and lemon juice.

(minced oath) Used in place of shit!

A sweet white (or brownish yellow) crystalline substance, of a sandy or granular consistency, obtained by crystallizing the evaporated juice of certain plants, as the sugar cane, sorghum, beet root, sugar maple, etc. It is used for seasoning and preserving many kinds of food and drink. Ordinary sugar is essentially sucrose. See the Note below.

By extension, anything resembling sugar in taste or appearance; as, sugar of lead (lead acetate), a poisonous white crystalline substance having a sweet taste.

Compliment or flattery used to disguise or render acceptable something obnoxious; honeyed or soothing words.

In making maple sugar, to complete the process of boiling down the sirup till it is thick enough to crystallize; to approach or reach the state of granulation; - with the preposition off.

To impregnate, season, cover, or sprinkle with sugar; to mix sugar with.

To cover with soft words; to disguise by flattery; to compliment; to sweeten; as, to sugar reproof.

A white crystalline carbohydrate used as a sweetener and preservative

An essential structural component of living cells and source of energy for animals; includes simple sugars with small molecules as well as macromolecular substances; are classified according to the number of monosaccharide groups they contain

Informal terms for money

Sweeten with sugar;

Candy is a confection made using sugar among other ingredients, while sugar is a sweetener derived from sugarcane or beets.

Yes, sugar is a fundamental ingredient in most candies, providing sweetness and texture.

Most candies are high in sugar, although some sugar-free options are available.

Candy is typically eaten as a snack or dessert.

Sugar itself isn't a treat but is used to make candies or other sweet desserts.

Candy is integral to many cultural festivities and holidays, such as Halloween, Easter, and Christmas, where it is used as treats and gifts.

In moderation, candy can be part of a balanced diet, providing satisfaction and potentially reducing the risk of overindulgence later.

Both can contribute to health implications.

Common types include chocolates, gummies, hard candies, lollipops, and toffees.

Sugar substitutes can alter the flavor, texture, and nutritional profile of candy, often used to reduce calorie content.