Stuffing is a mixture of ingredients used to fill something, most commonly bread cubes mixed with herbs, vegetables, and broth, cooked inside a turkey or baked separately. At Thanksgiving dinner, many families serve stuffing alongside roasted turkey. Some recipes include sausage, dried fruit, or nuts. When it's baked outside the bird in a pan, people sometimes call it dressing instead.

The word also means the soft material packed inside something to give it shape or cushioning. The stuffing in a teddy bear or pillow is usually cotton or polyester fiber. Old-fashioned furniture and toys used actual straw or feathers. When a stuffed animal gets ripped, you might see its stuffing poking out of the tear.

You can use stuffing as a verb too. Stuffing papers into an already full backpack means cramming them in without much care. Stuffing yourself with food means eating way too much, usually until you feel uncomfortably full. After a big holiday meal, someone might groan and say “I'm stuffed!” meaning they ate so much they can barely move.