Standard Lemma guide

babka

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: /ˈbɑb.kə/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: B AE1 B K AH0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A Central and Eastern European coffee cake flavored with orange rind, rum, almonds, and raisins; or with some single flavoring, such as chocolate or lemon.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a coffee cake flavored with orange rind and raisins and almonds

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: coffeecake, coffee cake

History

Etymology

From a Slavic language likely via Yiddish באַבקע (babke). Compare baba (“rum soaked cake”).

Across languages

Translations

6 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: baba — coffee cake
  • French: babka — coffee cake
  • Indonesian: babka — coffee cake
  • Polish: babka — coffee cake
  • Russian: ба́ба (bába) — coffee cake
  • Yiddish: באַבקע (babke) — coffee cake