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tasting

noun

Simple meaning

The taking of a small amount of food or drink into the mouth to taste it.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

taysting

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈteɪstɪŋ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The taking of a small amount of food or drink into the mouth in order to taste it.

  2. Taking a small amount into the mouth to test its quality

  3. A small amount (especially of food or wine)

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The taking of a small amount of food or drink into the mouth in order to taste it.

Used this way, tasting is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Mild
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use tasting

  • “We went wine tasting at a lovely vineyard last Saturday afternoon.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Taking / small

wine tastingtasting water

Other combinations

tasting menutasting roomtasting foodtasting likebetter tastinggood tasting

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • relishing

    Taking a small amount into the mouth to test its quality.

  • taste

    A small sample of food, drink, or recreational drugs.

  • sipping

    The act of taking a sip.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • tastenounBase word

    The sensation that results when taste buds in the tongue and throat convey information about the chemical composition of a soluble stimulus.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • tasternounPerson or profession

    Someone who samples food or drink for its quality.

  • tastyadjectiveDerived adjective

    Pleasing to the sense of taste.

  • tastefuladjectiveDerived adjective

    Having or showing or conforming to good taste.

  • tastelessadjectiveDerived adjective

    Lacking flavor.

  • tastefullyadverbDerived adverb

    With taste.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • wine tastingnounCompound term

    A gathering of people to taste and compare different wines.

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Words can change meaning depending on context.

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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.