diet
/ˈdaɪət/
diet noun: the food and beverage a person or animal consumes.
Noun (1)
diet (plural diets)
- The food and beverage a person or animal consumes.
- The diet of the giant panda consists mainly of bamboo.
- It is common policy to order no more diet than will be used within one month.2013, Martin D Buckland, Lynda Hall, Alan Mowlem, A Guide to Laboratory Animal Technology, page 56
- A controlled regimen of food and drink choices, as to gain or lose weight or otherwise influence health.
- He's been on a diet since he found out that he has coronary atherosclerosis.
- The doctor put me on a low-salt diet.
- Any habitual intake or consumption.
- He's been reading a steady diet of nonfiction for the last several years.
- Last week the aging video game retailer emerged as the hottest stock on Wall Street, a story just unexpected and absurd enough to fill the new Trump-shaped void in our nation’s media diet.2021 February 3, Farhad Manjoo, “Can We Please Stop Talking About Stocks, Please?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Adjective
diet (not comparable)
- Containing less fat, salt, sugar, or calories than normal, or claimed to have such.
- diet soda
- Many grocery chains offer premium-priced lean or diet hamburger; but the fat content is usually at least 10 percent, sometimes 15 percent or more.1982, Consumer Guide, Dieter's Complete Guide to Calories, Carbohydrates, Sodiums, Fats & Cholesterol, page 18
- Having certain traits subtracted.
- You folks reduce it to the bible only as being authoritative, impoverishing the faith. "Christianity Lite", diet Christianity for those who can't handle the Whole Meal.
- Synonyms:
- lite
Verb
diet (third-person singular simple present diets, present participle dieting, simple past and past participle dieted)
- To modify one's food and beverage intake so as to decrease or increase body weight or influence health.
- I've been dieting for six months, and I've lost some weight.
- To regulate the food of (someone); to put on a diet.
- they will diet themselves, feed and live alone.
- When all signs of effusion, dulness, pain, œgophony, and cough had disappeared he was dieted, stimulated, and tonicked.1887, Medical Press and Circular, volume 94, page 461
- To eat; to take one's meals.
- Let him[…]diet in such places, where there is good company of the nation, where he travelleth.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Travel”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC
- To cause to take food; to feed.
- But partly led to diet my revenge […].c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
Noun (2)
diet (plural diets)
- A council or assembly of leaders; a formal deliberative assembly.
- the National Diet of Japan
- They were given representation in some important diet committees.
- A session of exams.
- Normally the diet begins towards the end of April.2020 June 14, “Coronavirus: School exam timetable could be put back next year”, in BBC News website, BBC, retrieved 23 Apr 2026
- A criminal proceeding in court.
- A clerical or ecclesiastical function in Scotland.
- a diet of worship
Noun (3) capitalized: DIET
DIET (uncountable)
- Abbreviation of direct interspecies electron transfer.
Proper noun capitalized: Diet
the Diet
- Alternative letter-case form of diet (“formal deliberative assembly”).
diet meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu
diet in Hindi
- controlled regimen of food
- आहार āhār
diet in Tamil
- food a person or animal consumes
- உணவு uṇavu
- controlled regimen of food
- உணவு uṇavu
diet in Marathi
- controlled regimen of food
- पथ्य pathya
diet in Telugu
- food a person or animal consumes
- ఆహారం āhāraṁ
More languagesFewer languages
- diet in Malayalam
- ഭക്ഷണക്രമം, ഭക്ഷണരീതി, ആഹാരക്രമം
- diet in Kannada
- ಆಹಾರಕ್ರಮ, ಆಹಾರ ಕ್ರಮ, ಆಹಾರ ಪದ್ಧತಿ
- diet in Nepali
- आहारक्रम
- diet in Arabic
- حِمْيَة ḥimya, حِمْيَة غِذَائِيَّة ḥimya ḡiḏāʔiyya, نِظَام غِذَائِيّ niẓām ḡiḏāʔiyy, بَرْلَمَان barlamān
- diet in Thai
- อาหาร aa-hǎan
- diet in Vietnamese
- chế độ ăn uống, chế độ ăn kiêng
Examples of diet in a sentence
- My jeans are too tight, so I'm going on a diet.
- The difference in weight (mass) of the regular and the diet drink of the same brand roughly equals to the amount of sugar in the regular drink.1998, Andy Sae, Chemical Magic from the Grocery Store:
Synonyms of diet
Forms of diet
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | diets |
| alternative form (dated, rare) | diët |
| alternative form (obsolete) | diate |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | diets |
| present participle | dieting |
| past participle | dieted |
| past | dieted |
Origin of diet
From Middle English diet, dyet, diete, from Old French diete, from Medieval Latin dieta (“regimen, regulation; assembly”), from Latin diaeta, from Ancient Greek δίαιτα (díaita).
From Middle English dieten, dyeten, diȝeten, from Old French dïeter and Medieval Latin diētāre.
From Middle English diet, dyet, from Old French diete, from Medieval Latin diēta, diaeta (“a public assembly; set day of trial; a day's journey”), from Ancient Greek δῐ́αιτα (dĭ́aita, “way of living, living space; decision, judgement”), influenced by Latin diēs (“day”).
Words formed from diet
- 5:2 diet
- antidiet
- Atkins diet
- Atlantic diet
- balanced diet
- carnivore diet
- caveman diet
- crash diet
- desert the diet
- dietarian
- dietary
- dietary fiber
- Diet Coke
- diet cola
- diet culture
- dieter
- dietetics
- dietic
- dietitian
- diet kitchen
- dietless
- dietology
- dietwise
- diety
- don't diet, try it
- elimination diet
- fad diet
- hypoglycemic diet
- keto diet
- ketogenic diet
- lion diet
- liquid diet
- Maduro diet
- Mediterranean diet
- military diet
- misdiet
- mono diet
- nondiet
- Okinawa diet
- palaeodiet
- Paleo diet
- paleodiet
- prediet
- road diet
- South Beach Diet
- Stillman diet
- Stone Age diet
- superdiet
- Western pattern diet
- Zone diet
- diet pop
- diet soda
- Dietman
- National Diet
Phrases with diet
Words that rhyme with diet
1 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about diet
- What does diet mean?
- Diet means the food and beverage a person or animal consumes.
- What is diet in Hindi?
- Diet in Hindi is आहार (āhār). See Diet meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use diet in a sentence?
- My jeans are too tight, so I'm going on a diet.
- What part of speech is diet?
- Diet can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce diet?
- Diet is pronounced /ˈdaɪət/.
- What is the plural of diet?
- The plural of diet is diets.
Words near diet in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: diet (page history and authors); DIET (page history and authors); Diet (page history and authors); diet (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); diet (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); diet (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-diet.ogg.
Cite this entry: “diet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/diet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.