Sprinkle means to scatter small amounts of something lightly over a surface. When you sprinkle salt on your popcorn or cinnamon sugar on toast, you're distributing tiny bits evenly rather than dumping them all in one spot. Bakers sprinkle colorful decorations on cupcakes. Gardeners sprinkle seeds across freshly turned soil.

The word captures that gentle, scattered quality: you don't pour or dump, you sprinkle. Rain can sprinkle down lightly, which is less than a full shower but more than nothing. If someone says “it's sprinkling outside,” they mean it's raining just enough to dampen things but not enough to soak them.

A sprinkle (as a noun) refers to these small scattered bits themselves. Those tiny candy decorations on ice cream? They're called sprinkles. The word also describes a light rain or even a small amount of something scattered through a larger whole: a sprinkle of humor in a serious speech, or a sprinkle of freckles across someone's nose.

The key to sprinkling is control and lightness. You're adding just enough to make a difference without overwhelming what's underneath.