A confection is a sweet food made with sugar as the main ingredient. Candy, chocolate truffles, fudge, marshmallows, and glazed fruits are all confections. The word comes from the careful process of combining and cooking sugar with other ingredients to create these treats.

When you watch a chocolatier dip strawberries in melted chocolate or a candy maker pull taffy, you're watching confection-making in action. Professional confectioners might spend years learning to temper chocolate perfectly or cook caramel to exactly the right temperature. Making confections requires precision: too much heat and the sugar burns, too little and it stays grainy.

The word can also describe anything elaborate and decorative that seems almost too fancy, like a confection of a wedding cake with seven tiers and hundreds of sugar flowers. A fancy dress with layers of ruffles and ribbons might be called a confection, suggesting it's as elaborate and sweet-looking as a decorated cake.

While we often use “candy” and “confection” to mean the same thing in everyday speech, confection suggests something more carefully crafted than a simple piece of store-bought candy.