taste
noun · verb
Simple meaning
One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
taystIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈteɪst
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation.
The sense that consists in the perception and interpretation of this sensation.
A small sample of food, drink, or recreational drugs.
countable and uncountable
A person's implicit set of preferences, especially esthetic, though also culinary, sartorial, etc.
Personal preference; liking; predilection.
A kind of sensing; distinguishing substances by means of the taste buds
verb
Take a sample of
transitive
To sample the flavor of something orally.
transitive
To identify (a flavor) by sampling something orally.
To try by eating a little; to eat a small quantity of.
Experience briefly
“The ex-slave tasted freedom shortly before she died.”
To take sparingly.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation.
Used this way, taste is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- taste sensation , rarer, so it draws attention
- taste perception , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use taste
- “His cold deprived him of his sense of taste.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A small amount (especially of food or wine).
Someone who samples food or drink for its quality.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Pleasing to the sense of taste.
Having or showing or conforming to good taste.
Lacking flavor.
With taste.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Someone who samples food or drink for its quality.
An epithelial cell in a taste bud that activates sensory fibers of the facial nerve or the glossopharyngeal nerve or the vagus nerve.
Someone who popularizes a new fashion.
An oval sensory end organ on the surface of the tongue.
The sensation that results when taste buds in the tongue and throat convey information about the chemical composition of a soluble stimulus.
A property appreciated via the sense of taste.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
noun
Sense: one of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.