sprinkled

Sprinkled is the past tense and past participle of the verb sprinkle. It describes the action of scattering small amounts of a substance over a surface or distributing something in light, irregular drops or particles. When something is sprinkled, the coverage is typically light and uneven rather than forming a solid layer.

In cooking and food service, foods are sprinkled with dry ingredients such as sugar, salt, pepper, herbs, or spices to add flavor or texture. Common examples include “sprinkled with sesame seeds” or “sprinkled with cinnamon.” In gardening and agriculture, seeds, fertilizer, or mulch may be sprinkled onto soil. In decorating and textiles, glitter, confetti, or powdered color can be sprinkled onto surfaces for a decorative effect.

In weather usage, “to sprinkle” or “sprinkles” refers to very light precipitation, often intermittent and short-lived. A sky described as sprinkling is producing a light, scattered shower rather than a steady downpour. The term is often used interchangeably with drizzle in informal speech but generally conveys a lighter, more irregular distribution of moisture than a full rain shower.

Related forms include sprinkle (the base verb) and sprinkling (the gerund or present participle). The concept appears across domains such as culinary, horticultural, decorative, and meteorological contexts, all sharing the core idea of distributing small amounts over a surface or area.