Word of the Day

: March 29, 2022

palatable

play
adjective PAL-uh-tuh-bul

What It Means

Palatable can mean "agreeable to one's sense of taste or palate" or "agreeable or acceptable to the mind."

// The soup was too bland for my taste, so I added some salt and pepper to make it palatable.

// Those who are afraid of flying often consider traveling by train as the palatable alternative.

See the entry >

palatable in Context

"He felt the applicant made the proposal as palatable to the board as possible and feared that other potential uses of the property such as commercial businesses or restaurants could have higher traffic volumes." — Josh Janney, The Northern Virginia (Strasburg) Daily, 11 Feb. 2022


Did You Know?

Palatable comes from palate, a word for the roof of the mouth, which itself comes from Latin palatum. The palate was once thought of as the seat of the sense of taste, so the word eventually came to mean "sense of taste," or broadly, "liking."



Quiz

Unscramble the letters to create an adjective meaning "tasty": TINDAY.

VIEW THE ANSWER

Podcast


More Words of the Day

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!