Butterscotch is a type of confectionery made by boiling sugar syrup, butter, cream, and vanilla. In many ways it is similar to toffee except that the sugar is boiled to the "soft crack" stage. Butterscotch is often confused with caramel. The most obvious difference between the two is that butterscotch contains no milk ingredients, except for butter.

Butterscotch can be bought in the form of individually wrapped, translucent hard candies. It is often used as a flavouring for items such as dessert sauce, pudding, and biscuits. To that end, it can be bought in "butterscotch chips", similar to chocolate chips.

Food historians have several theories regarding the name of this candy and its connection to Scotland; none of them conclusive. Some have documented that "buttery toffee" is often called butterscotch—Scotch being an old adjective for Scotland—which suggests it was invented in the country. However, the word was first recorded in Doncaster, a Yorkshire town of England, where Samuel Parkinson began making the candy in 1817. Possibly the "scotch" part of its name derives from "scorch".

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