Nougat is a variety of similar traditional confectioneries made with sugar and/or honey, roasted nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts and most recently macadamia nuts are common), and sometimes chopped candied fruit. The consistency of nougat can range from soft and chewy to hard and crunchy depending on its composition, and it is used in a variety of candy bars and chocolates. The word nougat comes from Occitan pan nogat (Occitan pronunciation: [panuˈɣat]), which means nutbread.

There are three basic kinds of nougat: The first, and most common, is white nougat (which appeared in Cremona, Italy in the early 15th century and later in Montélimar, France, in the 18th century) is made with beaten egg whites and honey. The second is brown nougat (referred to as "mandorlato" in Italy and nougatine in French) is made without egg whites and has a firmer, often crunchy texture. The third is the Viennese or German nougat which is essentially a chocolate and nut (usually hazelnut) praline.

Spanish turrón follows the traditional recipes with toasted almonds, sugar, honey, and egg whites.

Torrone from Italy includes these same basic ingredients as well as vanilla or citrus flavoring, and is often sandwiched between two very thin sheets of rice paper. In the Venetian town of Cologna Veneta is produced mandorlato, always based on honey, sugar, egg whites and almonds (mandorle in Italian) but with a different taste and harder to bite than torrone.

Australian nougat is produced by a similar method to French and Italian nougat but usually has a 50% almonds, it can contain Macadamia nuts, apricots, or other texture modifiers. The nougat is commonly produced in two varieties: soft and crunchy. During candy making, this is done by heating a sugar solution to different temperatures before folding in egg whites and honey.

"Wiener (Viennese) Nougat", or, in German, "Schmelz-Schokolade" (molten chocolate) is a variant which contains only sugar, cocoa butter, almonds, and cocoa mass, and has a mellow consistency. In Germany, gianduja is traditionally called nougat.

Persian nougat, known as Gaz, is a variety that has been produced in Isfahan, Iran for many centuries by various manufacturers including Ashrafi Gaz, Kermani Gaz, Shirin Gaz, Sekkeh Gaz and others. Gaz can also contain the sugary extract of the root of Tamarix.

A special kind of Gaz is referred to as Nogha in Persian derived from the word Nougat and made mainly in the Turkish regions of Iran. Nogha is almost exclusively made with walnuts instead of pistachios and almonds which are usual for other types of Gaz. The making of Nogha is very much the same as any other Gaz. The difference is that Nogha is usually spread between two very thin layers of wafers and cut into 10x5x5cm sections which are larger than ordinary Gaz cubes.

There are two types of African nougat, or nougati, ranging from the white kurtzati to the black baxtiti, and mainly containing fruits rather than nuts. The higher fruit-to-nut ratio can be most prominent in the brown simchati nougat variety.