Meanings
noun
- A type of Korean dessert made with honey, rice wine, sesame oil, and ginger juice.
Perhaps no Korean dish represents the value of honey more than the ancient dessert yakgwa, a deep-fried honey cookie soaked in syrup. Yakgwa (“yak” means medicine and “gwa” means confection) is more than a vessel for coveted sweetness.
2023 September 18, Eric Kim, “The Amber Gleam of Yakgwa, South Korea’s ‘It’ Cookie”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Origin
- Korean약과
- Englishyakgwa
Borrowed from Korean 약과 (yakgwa).
More words from Korean
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
yakgwa. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yakgwa
MLA
“yakgwa.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yakgwa. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “yakgwa,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yakgwa.
Source: yakgwa on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.