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Dessert vs. Desert: What’s the Difference?

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Dalia Y

BA, MA, Phil. Grammarflex's initial initiator and contributor.

Dessert vs. desert

Surely you would have no trouble differentiating a delicious chocolate cake from a dry, barren wasteland…? In writing, the two words are a mere letter apart, and are regularly confused. Let’s speak to the difference; that is, the difference between dessert and desert.

👍🏼Usage Note
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After dinner, we always look forward to a delicious dessert.
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Camels are well-adapted to living in the harsh desert environment.
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For her birthday, she requested a chocolate cake for desert.
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Crossing the Sahara dessert takes many days.

While these words sound similar, desert and dessert are homophones that mean very different things, and are also pronounced slightly different.

  • Desert with one s refers to the dry, barren region where you wouldn’t want to get trapped without any water. The pronunciation of desert here is more like dez-ert, as if it were spelled with a ‘z’ instead of an ‘s’.
  • Dessert with two s’s refers to the final course we occasionally have after dinner (if we’re lucky). This can include anything from pastries, cakes, ice cream, chips, cookies or whatever sweet stuff (read: the double s) one could desire.

The difference between: dessert vs. desert

Sentences with ‘dessert‘ Sentences with ‘desert‘
What’s for dessert? They travelled many miles across burning desert sands.

The verb form of ‘desert’

Desert as a noun means “a large area of land that has very little water and very few plants growing on it. Many deserts are covered by sand”. Maybe you’ve heard of some of the world’s most famous deserts, like the Sahara desert, which is the largest hot desert and the third largest desert overall in the world. There’s also the famous Mojave desert in the United States, and the Kalahari desert in Southern Africa.

Desert has another application and meaning when used as a verb. In its verb form, desert means, “to leave somebody without help or support”. Here, desert is synonymous with words like abandon, betray or flee.

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A quick tip to remember the difference between the two words and spellings is to think of the two s’s in dessert as an acronym for “something sweet” or “sweet stuff“, which is precisely what desserts are.

💡Study Tip

“dessert” has two ‘s’s like “Sweet Stuff,” reminding you it’s the sugary treat.

Common phrases with “desert”

Phrases with desert Meaning
to be as dry as a desert To be extremely dry.
cultural desert A place that lacks culture.
to desert (someone or something) for (someone or something) To abandon something or someone for something or someone else.
to desert a sinking ship To leave a situation in which failure is imminent.
desert and reward seldom keep company Rarely do we get rewards we anticipate.
desert cherry A soldier who has recently arrived in the desert during a war.
desert rheumatism A nickname for coccidioidomycosis (an infection of the lungs and skin caused by inhaling a fungus).
food desert A location that lack options for nutritious food. The phrase is often associated with urban areas with stores that mostly offer non-perishable food (The Idiom Dictionary).
to get (one’s) just deserts To get what one deserves (not normally meant in a positive way).

Synonyms of dessert

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  • last course
  • sweet course
  • confection
  • cookie
  • cake
  • frozen treat

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Synonyms of desert

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  • desolate
  • arid
  • uninhabited
  • wilderness
  • barren

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Read about other confusing words

Commonly misused words UK English vs. US English
former vs. latter burned or burnt?
bear with vs. bare with color or colour?
breathe or breath favorite vs. favourite
compliment vs. complement smelled or smelt?
effect vs. affect gray or grey?
elude or allude favor vs. favour
it’s or its analyze or analyse?

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Work Sheet

Question 1 of 10

Which word, spelled with one ‘s’, refers to a dry, barren region?



Which word, spelled with two ‘s’s, refers to a sweet course after a meal?



According to the blog post, the two ‘s’s in ‘dessert’ can help you remember that it means what?



When used as a verb, the word ‘desert’ means:



Which word is pronounced more like ‘dez-ert’ according to the post?



For my birthday, I want a big slice of chocolate cake for .



Camels are well-adapted to survive in the harsh environment.



Crossing the Sahara takes many days.



What’s for tonight? I hope it’s ice cream!



The phrase “to be as dry as a ” means to be extremely dry.





Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell the sweet food?
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The sweet course you eat after dinner is spelled “dessert” with two ‘s’s. You can remember this spelling by thinking of the two ‘s’s as standing for “Sweet Stuff”.

How do you spell the dry land?
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The dry, barren region with very little water is spelled “desert” with one ‘s’. Famous examples include the Sahara desert or the Mojave desert in the United States.

What’s the pronunciation difference?
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“Desert” (dry land) is pronounced more like dez-ert, as if spelled with a ‘z’. “Dessert” (sweet course) with two ‘s’s sounds similar but is pronounced slightly differently.

Is there a verb form of desert?
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Yes, “desert” can be a verb meaning “to leave somebody without help or support.” In this usage, it is synonymous with words like abandon, betray, or flee.

Tip to remember spelling?
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A helpful tip is to think of the two ‘s’s in “dessert” as standing for “something sweet” or “Sweet Stuff,” which reminds you that it refers to the sugary treat.

Yash, D. "Dessert vs. Desert: What’s the Difference?." Grammarflex, Jun 19, 2025, https://www.grammarflex.com/desert-vs-dessert-whats-the-difference/.

Sources

  1. Desert, Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, accessed on Oct 4, 2023.

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