taste

/teɪst/

taste noun: one of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation. Also the deliberate misspelling of tasty.

Noun

taste (countable and uncountable, plural tastes)

One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation.
- He had a strange taste in his mouth.
- Venison has a strong taste.
Synonyms:

smack
The sense that consists in the perception and interpretation of this sensation.
- His taste was impaired by an illness.
A small sample of food, drink, or recreational drugs.
A person's implicit set of preferences, especially esthetic, though also culinary, sartorial, etc.
- Dr. Parker has good taste in wine.
- That's very true indeed Sir Peter! after having married you I should never pretend to Taste again I allow.1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, II.i
Synonyms:

palate, discernment, culture, refinement, style
Personal preference; liking; predilection.
- I have developed a taste for fine wine.
Synonyms:

palate
(figuratively) A small amount of experience with something that gives a sense of its quality as a whole.
- Such anecdotes give one a taste of life on a trauma ward.
- Sir Humphrey Appleby: Bernard, what do you want? / Bernard Woolley: I want to have a clear conscience. / […] / Sir Humphrey Appleby: When did you acquire this taste for luxuries (laugh track)?1980 March 3, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “Official Secrets (Yes, Prime Minister)”, in Yes, Prime Minister, season 2, episode 2, spoken by Humphrey Appleby and Bernard Woolley (Nigel Hawthorne and...
Synonyms:

impression, sample, trial
A kind of narrow and thin silk ribbon.
(dialectal) The least amount or portion of something; a jot.
- "So he opened the door very quitely, an' didn't make a taste o' n'ise in the wurld, an' luked all about, but the niver a bit o' the little man cud he see anywhare, but he h'ard his hammerin' and whis'lin', an' so he luked and luked, till at last he seen the little fellow[.]"1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 383

Verb

taste (third-person singular simple present tastes, present participle tasting, simple past and past participle tasted)

(transitive) To sample the flavor of something orally.
- when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 2:9
- Does a bagel in New York City really taste better because of the water, or is it our desire to feel like a “real” New Yorker, even for a few minutes over breakfast, that does the trick? […] The idea that a pint of Guinness tastes best in Ireland sounds like it could be a drinker’s romantic notion –...2023 June 15, Rebecca Wallwork, “‘You had to be there’: Foods that taste better on home turf”, in CNN
Synonyms:

smack
(copulative, intransitive) To have a taste; to excite a particular sensation by which flavor is distinguished.
- The chicken tasted great, but the milk tasted like garlic.
Synonyms:

hint
(transitive) To identify (a flavor) by sampling something orally.
- I can definitely taste the marzipan in this cake.
(figuratively, transitive) To experience.
- I tasted in her arms the delights of paradise.
- They had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.
To take sparingly.
- Age but tastes of pleasures, youth devours.1699, John Dryden, Epistle to John Drydenhttps://books.google.es/books?id=0fo_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA147&dq=%22Age+but+tastes+of+pleasures,+youth+devours%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwihhoWhjrzqAhV9URUIHYdFCJw4ChDo...
To try by eating a little; to eat a small quantity of.
- I tasted a little of this honey.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 14:29
(obsolete) To try by the touch; to handle.
- to taste the bow1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615...

Also used as

taste is also the deliberate misspelling of tasty.

taste meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

taste in Hindi

one of the sensations produced by the tongue: स्वाद svād, ज़ायक़ा zāyqā
implicit set of preferences: स्वाद svād
personal preference; liking; predilection: रुचि ruci, वरीयता varīytā
(figuratively) a small amount of experience: स्वाद svād

taste in Tamil

to sample the flavor of something: சுவை cuvai
to have a taste: சுவை cuvai

taste in Urdu

one of the sensations produced by the tongue: ذائِقَہ zāiqa, طَعْم ta'm, مَزَہ maza
to sample the flavor of something: چکھنا cakhnā

taste in Bengali

one of the sensations produced by the tongue: স্বাদ śad, সোয়াদ śoad, মজা môza

More languagesFewer languages

taste in Punjabi: ਸੁਆਦ suāda
taste in Gujarati: સ્વાદ svād, ચાખવુ cākhvu
taste in Sanskrit: रस rasa
taste in Assamese: জুতি zuti, সোৱাদ xüad, চাক sak, খাই চা khai sa
taste in Nepali: स्वाद svād, चाख्नु cākhnu
taste in Pashto: طعم ta'm, خوند xwand
taste in Tagalog: panlasa, tikman, lasahan
taste in Arabic: ذَوْق ḏawq, طَعْم ṭaʕm, مَذَاق maḏāq, ذَاقَ ḏāqa
taste in Malay: rasa, citarasa
taste in Indonesian: rasa
taste in Persian: چشیدن češidan, مزه داشتن maze dâštan
taste in Thai: รสชาติ rót-châat, รส rót, ชิม chim
taste in Vietnamese: vị, vị giác, sở thích, gu
taste in Myanmar: အရသာ a.ra.sa, ရသ ra.sa., ရသာရုံ ra.sarum
Sindhi: سواد swadu

Examples of taste in a sentence

Like smell, taste has been found to imprint our minds with strong memories.2023 June 15, Rebecca Wallwork, “‘You had to be there’: Foods that taste better on home turf”, in CNN:
I'm all out of luck / I'm all out of faith / I would give everything just for one taste / But everything's here, all out of place[…]2007, KT Tunstall, “Saving My Face”, in Drastic Fantastic:
He […] should taste death for every man.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 2:9:
Cowards dye many times before their deaths, / The valiant neuer taſte of death but once: […]c. 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published...

All 40 example sentences with taste

Synonyms of taste

3 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of taste

Forms of taste

Noun
plural	tastes
alternative form (obsolete)	tast
Verb
third-person singular present	tastes
present participle	tasting
past participle	tasted
past	tasted

Past tense of taste: tasted

Plural of taste: tastes

Origin of taste

The verb is from Middle English tasten, borrowed from Old French taster (“to taste, touch or hit”), from unattested Vulgar Latin *tastāre (“to touch or feel”), from *taxitāre, an innovated iterative form of Classical Latin taxāre (“to touch sharply”), from tangere (“to touch, to grasp”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g-, which is assumed to have had the same meaning as tangere. The noun came from the verb, and the two conflated after English lost its infinitive suffix -en, though tasten was most likely already used nominatively (as a gerund), similar to Modern English tasting. Almost fully displaced native smack, from Middle English smac, smak, smacke, from Old English smæc, smæċċ (“taste, smatch”). Displaced English smatch, from Middle English smacchen, smecchen, from Old English smæċċan (“to taste; to smack”); displaced also Middle English buriȝen, from Old English bierġan (“to taste”).

Words formed from taste

Phrases with taste

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with taste

23 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about taste

What does taste mean?: Taste means one of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation.
What is taste in Hindi?: Taste in Hindi is स्वाद (svād), ज़ायक़ा (zāyqā), चखना (cakhnā). See Taste meaning in Hindi.
How do you use taste in a sentence?: Like smell, taste has been found to imprint our minds with strong memories.
What part of speech is taste?: Taste can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce taste?: Taste is pronounced /teɪst/.
What is the plural of taste?: The plural of taste is tastes.

Words near taste in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: taste (page history and authors). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-taste.ogg.

Cite this entry: “taste.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taste. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.