Word of the Day

: April 12, 2025

gustatory

adjective GUSS-tuh-tor-ee

What It Means

Gustatory describes things that are related to or associated with eating or the sense of taste.

// The deli has been widely praised for its astonishing variety of gustatory delights.

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gustatory in Context

"For those who have never experienced the gustatory pleasure, these cream puffs consist of freshly baked pastry shells generously covered with powdered sugar and bloated with chilled vanilla pudding that has been pumped into them." — Carl Hamilton, The Cecil Whig (Elkton, Maryland), 12 Feb. 2025

Did You Know?

Gustatory is a member of a finite set of words that describe the senses with which we encounter our world, the other members being visual, aural, olfactory, and tactile. Like its peers, gustatory has its roots in Latin—in this case, the Latin word gustare, meaning "to taste." Gustare is a direct ancestor of gustatory, gustation, meaning "the act or sensation of tasting," and degustation, meaning "the action or an instance of tasting especially in a series of small portions." More distant relatives of gustare include choose and disgust.