Sorbet and sherbet are both sweet, fruity frozen desserts with a soft texture. But if sorbet is made from fruit juice or purée that is mixed with a sugar syrup and sometimes alchohol (Italian meringue may be added to sorbet to enhance its volume), its American cousin sherbet contains a small amount of milk or cream (for a total of 1 to 2 percent milk fat).

To make matters more complicated, in Turkish, sherbet is a chilled drink made with rose hips, cornelian cherries, rose or licorice and spices that's believed to have medicinal powers. In the UK, sherbet is a sweetened effervescent powder that's added to drinks like lemonade.

And if someone asks you if you'd like some sherbert, they're just making a common mistake of mispronouncing the name.