Meaning of taste in English

taste

noun

/teɪst/ uk

/teɪst/

taste noun (FLAVOR)

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B1 [ C or U ]

the flavor of something, or the ability of a person or animal to recognize different flavors:

taste of I love the taste of garlic.

acquired taste Olives are usually an acquired taste (= you only like them after you have become familiar with their taste).

sense of taste When you have a cold you often lose your sense of taste.

See also

aftertaste

a taste for something

the fact of liking or enjoying something:

She came home from Europe with a taste for art and the finer things in life.

[ S ]

a small amount of food:

Take a taste of the sauce and tell me if it needs salt.

More examplesFewer examples

When preparing meals, you need to think about variety and taste as well as nutritional value.
Lemons have a sharp taste.
This wine has a light, fresh taste.
Aniseed has a very distinctive taste - I don't like it personally.
We value herbs for their taste, but we forget that they also have medicinal properties.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Flavors & tastes

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The senses in general

Food - general words

taste noun (JUDGMENT)

B2 [ C or U ]

a person's approval of and liking for particular things:

I'm not really into new cars - old vintage cars are more my taste (= what I like).

B2 [ U ] approving

a person's ability to judge and recognize what is good or suitable, especially relating to such matters as art, style, beauty, and behavior:

have good/terrible/etc. taste He has terrible taste, so you can probably imagine what his house looks like.

taste in His taste in clothes leaves a little to be desired.

tastes B2 [ plural ]

the things a person likes:

have expensive tastes I have expensive tastes (= I like expensive things) so I need to have a well-paid job.

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She has a rather esoteric taste in clothes.
She's always had execrable taste in men.
She has exquisite taste.
They've got those curtains that tie up with big bows - they're a bit fussy for my taste.
I don't think garden gnomes are in very good taste.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Liking

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Flavors & tastes

taste noun (EXPERIENCE)

B2 [ S ]

a short experience of something:

have a taste of I had a taste of office work during the summer and that was enough.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Samples and examples

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Idioms

be in good, the best possible, etc. taste

be in bad, poor, the worst possible, etc. taste

taste

verb [ T ]

/teɪst/ uk

/teɪst/

taste verb [T] (FOOD/DRINK)

to put food or drink in your mouth to find out what flavor it has:

Taste this sauce and tell me if it needs seasoning.

What is this? I've never tasted anything like it.

taste good, bad, sweet, etc.

to have a particular flavor:

This sauce tastes strange.

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Taste the stew to see if it has enough salt.
How do you know you don't like it if you won't even taste it?
We all tasted the cake.
If you've ever tasted Carmen's cooking, you'll know what I mean.
She drew off a little of her home-made wine just to taste.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Eating

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Drinking

taste verb [T] (EXPERIENCE)

to experience something for a short time:

Once you've tasted luxury it's very hard to settle for anything else.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Experiencing and suffering

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(Definition of taste from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

taste | Intermediate English

taste

noun [ C/U ]

/teɪst/

taste noun [C/U] (FLAVOR)

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a flavor and feeling produced by food or drink in your mouth that tells you what it is and lets you appreciate it, or the ability to have this feeling:

[ U ] Sugar has a sweet taste and lemons have a sour taste.

[ U ] I’ve lost my taste for (= stopped enjoying the taste of) spicy foods.

A taste is also a small amount:

[ C usually sing ] Have a taste of this sauce and tell me if it’s too salty.

[ C usually sing ] fig. I had a taste of (= I briefly experienced) factory work last summer, and I didn’t like it at all.

taste noun [C/U] (JUDGMENT)

a person’s ability to judge and appreciate what is good and suitable, esp. in art, beauty, style, and behavior:

[ U ] Barbara has good/poor taste in clothes.

Taste is also a person’s liking for or appreciation of something:

[ C ] My son and I have very different tastes in music.

taste

verb

/teɪst/

taste verb (HAVE FLAVOR)

to have a particular flavor:

[ L ] Coffee always tastes good in the morning.

[ I always + adv/prep ] This tastes as if/as though/like it has pepper in it.

[ T ] I hope you can taste the garlic.

[ T ] Taste (= try a little of) this and tell me if you like it.

(Definition of taste from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of taste

taste

You'll just have to taste the porridge first to find out.

From Huffington Post

Growing up in the age of computers and technology and watching games grow up, we can almost taste it.

From TechCrunch

First, you get that little whang in the taste.

From Dallas Morning News

There are a lot of things one can do in the winery that will change the way it tastes.

From Reuters

We need a 5th word for the 5th taste.

From CNN

It is more expensive but has a better taste.

From CNN

It accounts for 80 percent of what we taste.

From Chicago Daily Herald

It's not just the taste which makes you enjoy a drink fully.

From New York Daily News

Watch me taste it in the video above.

From Huffington Post

These animals might have tasted a bit more like chicken.

From Slate Magazine

The taste is different with our other products.

From NBCNews.com

The taste can be a little underwhelming, given the price, but grows on you.

From NPR

It gives fans a very, very good taste of what an athlete's life is and what they're going through.

From NPR

And like the out-of-towners, she bought them for the memories they inspired rather than the taste.

From New York Daily News

When he had his first taste of salt air, he was hooked.

From CBS Local

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with taste

taste

These are words often used in combination with taste.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

acrid taste

It has an acrid taste, with a slight to pungent odor.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

aesthetic taste

Under these precepts, if aesthetic taste is not shared with those who generally have the power to determine it, then "heresy" would be the designated result.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

arbiter of taste

If so who is to be the arbiter of taste?

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

See all collocations with taste

What is the pronunciation of taste?