thumb|"Cloudy" Lemonade, a mixture of lemon juice, sugar, and uncarbonated water Lemonade is a lemon-flavored drink, typically made from lemons, water and sugar. Due to the contrast of sweet and sour, the resulting flavor can be very agreeable to the taste buds.

The term can refer to three different types of beverage:

• "Clear" lemonade: In many western European countries, the term limonade, from which the term "lemonade" is derived, originally applied to unsweetened water or carbonated soda water with lemon juice added, although several versions of sugar sweetened limonade have arrived on store shelves.
• "Cloudy" lemonade: In the U.S., Canada and India(Nimbu Paani) lemonade refers to a mixture of lemon juice, sugar, and uncarbonated water, although there are many versions which contain artificial flavors instead of actual lemon juice. In India, Nimbu Paani is a common household preperation, made using freshly squeezed lemons, granular sugar, salt(and other spices as per preferred taste) and is invariably consumed fresh.
• "Fizzy" lemonade: In France, the modern use of the term limonade refers to sweet carbonated lemon soft drinks. Likewise, in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand the term mainly refers to a colourless, carbonated, sweet soft drink containing either natural or artificial lemon flavor, such as Schweppes Lemonade. In Sweden lemonad is synonymous with any carbonated soda, which means that even cola drinks could be offered to someone just asking for lemonad.

Terminology

The French word limonade, which originally referred to unsweetened lemon-flavoured water or carbonated soda, has since come to mean "soft drink," regardless of flavor, in many countries.

In the UK, the suffix 'ade' means a 'carbonated sweet soft drink'; hence limeade, orangeade, cherryade, etc. Brown lemonade exists in the Northern Ireland region of the UK.

In the Republic of Ireland, lemonade refers to the carbonated, lemon-flavored soft drink (as in the UK) but is further sub-divided into white (clear) lemonade and red lemonade. White lemonade equates to the colourless fizzy lemonade common in many countries, while red lemonade is particular to Ireland. Red lemonade differs slightly in taste from white lemonade and is either drunk neat or as part of a whiskey mixer.

American-style lemonade exists in the UK as a "homemade" drink (also called lemonade), but is only rarely sold commercially under that name. A carbonated version is commonly sold commercially as "cloudy" or "traditional" lemonade. There are also similar uncarbonated products, lemon squash and lemon barley water, both of which are usually sold as a syrup which is diluted to taste. Traditional lemonade also comes in powder packages. Variations on this form of lemonade can be found worldwide. In India and Pakistan, where it is commonly known as limu paani or nimbu paani, lemonade may also contain salt and/or ginger juice. In Brazil, lemonade is sometimes made with full lemons (including the skin) instead of just lemon juice.