Or alternatively ‘sharp’ or ‘sweet’.
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Grapes (used to make wine) give the wine sugars and tannins.
When you add yeast, the sugar is turned to alcohol. If you stop the yeast from continuing to feast on the sugars, you are left with something called “residual sugar.” If you allow the yeast to finish off all the sugar, you end up with little residual sugar and more alcohol. So, sweet wines have more residual sugars.
Tannins, also very present in tea, can have a drying effect on your tongue (in addition to being a bit bitter). An easy way to counteract this – a spoon full of sugar. Wine with residual sugars are doing the same thing – the sugar counteracts the drying and bitterness of the tannins. Alcohol also has that drying of the mouth feel – so again, a bit of sugar will make the wine dry out your mouth less – thus a wine without residual sugars is considered drier than the same style of wine with residual sugars.
All that said – one type of wine’s “dry” style, may be sweeter than another style’s sweet wine. Fortified wines may taste sweet and still be dry – such as a dry port.
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