スイーツ

すいーつ
noun
sweets; desserts (a stylish, modern-feeling word for confections, especially Western-style)
food
1. sweets; desserts; pastries (Western-style or modern Japanese-style confections)
Sweet foods, especially Western-style desserts such as cakes, tarts, parfaits, and pastries, but also stylishly presented Japanese sweets. The word entered everyday Japanese in the 2000s and now strongly implies fashionable, café-style confections suitable for posting to social media. It is more upscale and trendy in feel than お菓子(かし), which can mean any kind of snack or sweet.
スイーツが大好(だいす)きだ。
I love sweets.
駅前(えきまえ)に新(あたら)しいスイーツのお店(みせ)ができた。
A new sweets shop has opened in front of the station.
季節(きせつ)限定(げんてい)のスイーツを食(た)べに出(で)かけた。
We went out to eat seasonal limited-edition sweets.
コンビニのスイーツは年々(ねんねん)クオリティーが上(あ)がっていて、有名(ゆうめい)店(てん)と遜色(そんしょく)ないものも多(おお)い。
Convenience-store sweets have been improving in quality year by year, and many rival those of famous shops.

スイーツ is the English plural "sweets" naturalized into Japanese as a fashionable, lifestyle-oriented word for desserts. It became popular in the 2000s, partly through TV food coverage, and now refers to a broad category of café and shop confections — especially photogenic Western-style desserts like cakes, tarts, parfaits, macarons, and pancakes.

Usage

  • Café and dessert-shop menus
  • Convenience-store premium dessert lines (コンビニスイーツ)
  • Hotel afternoon-tea sets and seasonal fairs
  • Social-media food posts
  • スイーツ has a distinctly cosmopolitan, Instagrammable connotation. A handful of 煎餅(せんべい) would not normally be called スイーツ.
  • The word can be used as a count noun in phrases like スイーツを二(ふた)つ選(えら)ぶ "to pick two desserts."
  • For polite restaurant menus, デザート is more common than スイーツ.

Common collocations

  • スイーツ店(てん) / スイーツショップ: dessert shop
  • 季節(きせつ)限定(げんてい)スイーツ: seasonal limited-edition dessert
  • コンビニスイーツ: convenience-store dessert
  • 和(わ)スイーツ: "Japanese-style sweets" — a marketing term for Japanese confections styled as modern desserts
  • スイーツ男子(だんし): a man who enjoys eating and shopping for sweets
  • スイーツ巡(めぐ)り: a sweets tour, going from shop to shop

Similar / related terms

  • お菓子(かし): sweets, snacks — the general native word, covering everything from rice crackers and chocolate bars to traditional Japanese confections. Much broader than スイーツ.
  • デザート: dessert — usually a course at the end of a meal
  • 洋菓子(ようがし): Western-style confections (cakes, cookies, etc.) — a more traditional category label, somewhat overlapping with スイーツ but less trendy in feel
  • 和菓子(わがし): traditional Japanese confections (e.g., 大福(だいふく), 羊羹(ようかん)); not normally called スイーツ except in modern marketing as "和(わ)スイーツ"
  • 甘(あま)いもの: sweet things — a casual, native expression for "sweet stuff" in general

Related Words

Compare: お菓子(かし) (sweets, snacks)
Compare: デザート (dessert)
Compare: 洋菓子(ようがし) (Western-style confections)
Compare: 和菓子(わがし) (traditional Japanese confections)
Compare: 菓子(かし) (confectionery, sweets)
Compare: 甘(あま)い物(もの) (sweets)
Related: デザートメニュー (dessert menu)
general
Added 2026.5.10 12:07 · Revised 2026.9.2 13:02
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