taste bud

noun

: an end organ mediating the sensation of taste and lying chiefly in the epithelium of the tongue

Examples of taste bud in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

According to McCormick's 2025 Flavor Forecast, our taste buds will also be heading to the tropics, enjoying smoky flavors, and finding comfort in the unexpected. —Lauren Thomann, Better Homes & Gardens, 31 Jan. 2025

Beautifully illustrated, the cookbook that rose out of the restaurant as well as Oden’s years of cooking and research into Native foods is a feast for the eye as well as the taste buds. —Sandra Dallas, The Denver Post, 28 Jan. 2025

Research shows that taste buds will respond by finding sugary foods that used to be delicious now cloyingly sweet, or in the case of sodium, much too salty, Katz said. —Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 23 Jan. 2025

Dynamic Culinary Scene The city’s vibrant and rapidly rising culinary scene serves to tantalize taste buds. —Roger Sands, Forbes, 21 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1879, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

taste bud

noun

: any of the sense organs by means of which taste is recognized and which are usually on the surface of the tongue

Medical Definition

taste bud

noun

: an end organ that mediates the sensation of taste, lies chiefly in the epithelium of the tongue and especially in the walls of the circumvallate papillae, and consists of a conical or flask-shaped mass made up partly of supporting cells and partly of neuroepithelial sensory cells terminating peripherally in short hairlike processes which project into the pore in the overlying epithelium and by which communication with the mouth cavity is effected