Description word for food

Updated: November 8, 2021

Originally Published: Oct. 7, 2021

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Food nourishes us, delights us, and generally fuels our daily lives. In the era of social media, a gorgeously plated dish also makes for great content. However, coming up with something fun and exciting to say about that stunning 100 percent organic beet salad you just photographed for Instagram isn’t always easy. Sure, you could say it was yummy (accurate), but wouldn’t it be nice to break out some more interesting words to describe food the next time you upload a photo of your dinner to the ‘gram?

Expanding your vocabulary should be a life-long process. Words can be downright magical, which makes it all the more fun to discover new ones. Whether you’re helping a teen prep for their SAT, writing a short story, or just looking for new ways to spice up your social media captions, getting a crash course in descriptive words for food is a great place to start. Plus, learning the difference between apéritifs and a bouffage is sure to impress your foodie friends.

Fair warning: You might want to grab a snack before diving into this list of delectable food words, lest you get the borborygmus (stomach grumbles!). From unusual terms you may encounter on a menu at that fancy gastropub down the block to adjectives that will invoke just how happy those truffle fries really made you feel, we’ve got you covered. Ready to expand your food vocabulary and spice up your next food-centric post? Read on for a list of interesting, unusual, and downright delightful words you can use to describe the next meal you eat that’s so good it leaves you speechless.

Words to Describe Food Taste, Smell, or Texture

1. Acidic — sour or sharp in taste
2. Aromatic — having a distinctive smell
3. Astringent — sharp in flavor
4. Bitter — a sharp, sometimes unpleasant flavor
5. Bittersweet — a pleasing mix of bitterness and sweetness
6. Bland — lacking in flavor
7. Brackish — a taste of salty water
8. Buttery — having the taste of butter
9. Creamy — smooth, rich texture, usually used to describe something that includes dairy
10. Crumbly — the texture of food that crumbles
11. Delicate — a light taste or texture
12. Earthy — a flavor that reminds someone of fresh soil, usually applied to root vegetables and wine
13. Fiery — a dish that packs a spicy punch
14. Flaky — usually used to describe a pastry with many layers
15. Gamy — having the wild taste of game meat
16. Glazed — a sticky, flavorful coating
17. Honeyed — reminiscent of honey
18. Luscious — having a pleasant, rich taste
19. Mealy — containing meal; soft, dry, and friable
20. Mellow — a gentle, smooth flavor
21. Nectarous — like nectar, the drink of the gods
22. Pickled — a process that gives food a briny taste
23. Pungent — unpleasantly strong in taste or smell
24. Plummy — having the taste, smell, or flavor of a plum
25. Saccharine — overly sweet
26. Savory — food that’s salty or spicy, not sweet
27. Silky — a smooth taste
28. Tang — food with a tart taste
29. Treacly — excessively sweet
30. Zesty — having an invigorating flavor

Words Related to Food and Eating

1. Amuse-Bouche — a small sample platter, literally translates to “amuse the mouth”
2. Apéritifs — a savory dish, usually an appetizer
3. Balthazar — an oversized wine bottle that holds about 16 times a normal bottle’s volume
4. Banquet — a veritable feast
5. Caramelized — food that is cooked slowly until it browns and becomes sweet in taste
6. Compote — a chilled sauce
7. Confection — a dish made with sweet ingredients
8. Demerara — partially refined light brown cane sugar originally from Guyana
9. Gremolata — a seasoning containing grated lemon zest, minced garlic, and minced parsley
10. Grub — an informal word for food
11. Gourmet — high-quality food
12. Flavorsome — full of flavor
13. Full-bodied — a rich flavor
14. Hearty — robust, filling
15. Marinated — food that has been soaked in a flavorful liquid
16. Mirepoix — a mix of carrots, celery, onion, and herbs that seasons soups
17. Roux — a mix of butter and flour that turns into a paste-like consistency and is generally the start of a sauce recipe
18. Quidanny — a jelly or syrup made from fruit
19. Tartare — finely chopped raw fish or meat
20. Victuals — food or provisions

Beautiful and Descriptive Food Words

1. Ambrosial — fragrant, savory, sweet; “fit for the gods”
2. Bonne Bouche — a delicious mouthful
3. Borborygmus — intestinal rumblings
4. Bouffage — a grand banquet
5. Chiffonade — to cut into thin strips
6. Delectable — delicious
7. Divine — food that’s so good it’s heavenly
8. Dulcet — a British slang term for food
9. Forenoons — a light snack or brunch eaten between breakfast and lunch
10. Groak — to stare at people who are eating in the hope that they will offer to share their food
11. Gustatory — relating to taste
12. Gut-gullie — an old Scots dialect verb used to describe operating or eating greedily
13. Haute Cuisine — fine dining
14. Kickshaw — a fancy but insubstantial dish
15. Linnard — the last member of the group to finish their meal
16. Mouthwatering — food so good it makes you salivate
17. Omakase — a Japanese term that translates to “I’ll leave it up to you,” meaning you’re turning your food choice over to the chef
18. Orts — the small amount of food left at the end of a meal
19. Piquant — a flavor that is stimulating to the palette
20. Postprandial — occurring after a meal
21. Rassasy — a 15th-century word meaning to satiate someone’s hunger with food
22. Saporific — something that has the power to give you the sensation of taste
23. Sapid — having a strong, but pleasant taste
24. Scrumptious — delicious, yummy
25. Sobremesa — a Spanish term for when the food is finished but the conversation is still flowing
26. Speustic — a 17th-century word describing any meal or plate thrown together in haste
27. Tarnisher — an old Scots and Irish dialect word for a huge meal
28. Toothsome — tempting in taste
29. Uitbuiken — a Dutch term that translates to “outbellying”; when you relax, satiated, between courses or after a meal
30. Unctuous — oily

Trendy Food Words

1. Aftertaste — a taste, typically an unpleasant one, remaining in the mouth after eating or drinking something
2. Artisanal — produced in limited quantities by an artisan through the use of traditional methods
3. Nosh — a British slang term for food
4. Piehole — a slang term for mouth
5. Scrummy — an informal way of saying scrumptious
6. Sec — a term borrowed from the wine world, used to describe something dry or un-sweet
7. Soused — food kept in vinegar or alcohol for a long time
8. Succulent — juicy, tender food
9. Umami — a savory taste
10. Yule-hole — the hole on your belt buckle you have to move to after eating an enormous meal (usually around the holidays)

Food Adjectives That Start With S

1. Saporous — a flavor that has an exciting or agreeable taste
2. Satin — smooth
3. Sauteed — food that is cooked quickly with high heat
4. Savorless — lacking taste or bland
5. Seared — food that is cooked at a high temperature until a brown crust is formed
6. Sharp — tart or acidic taste
7. Simmered — food that is cooked slowly at low temperature
8. Sizzling — food that makes a hissing sound while it’s cooking

This article was originally published on Oct. 7, 2021

The idea for the Describing Words engine came when I was building the engine for Related Words (it’s like a thesaurus, but gives you a much broader set of related words, rather than just synonyms). While playing around with word vectors and the «HasProperty» API of conceptnet, I had a bit of fun trying to get the adjectives which commonly describe a word. Eventually I realised that there’s a much better way of doing this: parse books!

Project Gutenberg was the initial corpus, but the parser got greedier and greedier and I ended up feeding it somewhere around 100 gigabytes of text files — mostly fiction, including many contemporary works. The parser simply looks through each book and pulls out the various descriptions of nouns.

Hopefully it’s more than just a novelty and some people will actually find it useful for their writing and brainstorming, but one neat little thing to try is to compare two nouns which are similar, but different in some significant way — for example, gender is interesting: «woman» versus «man» and «boy» versus «girl». On an inital quick analysis it seems that authors of fiction are at least 4x more likely to describe women (as opposed to men) with beauty-related terms (regarding their weight, features and general attractiveness). In fact, «beautiful» is possibly the most widely used adjective for women in all of the world’s literature, which is quite in line with the general unidimensional representation of women in many other media forms. If anyone wants to do further research into this, let me know and I can give you a lot more data (for example, there are about 25000 different entries for «woman» — too many to show here).

The blueness of the results represents their relative frequency. You can hover over an item for a second and the frequency score should pop up. The «uniqueness» sorting is default, and thanks to my Complicated Algorithm™, it orders them by the adjectives’ uniqueness to that particular noun relative to other nouns (it’s actually pretty simple). As you’d expect, you can click the «Sort By Usage Frequency» button to adjectives by their usage frequency for that noun.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source mongodb which was used in this project.

Please note that Describing Words uses third party scripts (such as Google Analytics and advertisements) which use cookies. To learn more, see the privacy policy.

December 2, 2021
Vocabulary

Food is one of the best tasty topics to talk about and share with friends and family. Describing and comparing tastes and smells of various types of food might differ from one person to another. So, How do you describe food? What are some best words to describe food?

Greasy French fries, aromatic creamy soup, sour yogurt, flaky croissants, salty and crunchy chips, crispy and chewy cookies, zesty and peppery chicken pot, bitter and sweet Tiramisu, fruity, spicy and savory coffee, rich scrambled eggs, mouthwatering and toothsome paella. Taste, smell, together with texture and style of cooking, are all main factors to consider while choosing the right term to describe food.

The following list is a vivid collection of the best words to describe food we have put together to help you describe your favorite meals at dinner parties, at restaurants. These descriptive words about food will surely enrich and reinforce your school writings, or simply when commenting on friends meals’ Instagram posts.

How Do You Describe Food ( In terms of Taste) ? Example Sentences

Here are some words that will help you expand your food vocabulary and help you spice up your writings.

• Acidic

the acidic flavor of orange goes well with broiled fish

• Bitter

This black coffee had a slightly bitter taste.

• Bittersweet

The chocolate cakes she makes are usually bittersweet

• Briny

This briny dip goes nicely with the sweet shrimps

• Citrusy

This kind of berry has a citrusy flavor.

• Cooling

The cooling mint and yogurt sauce helps soothe the hot flavor of the chicken wings

• Earthy

The cooked mushrooms have a beautiful earthy taste.

• Fiery

A fiery hearty masala is just what I needed

• Fresh

Fresh fruit salad is a perfect dinner

• Fruity

Our kids always enjoy sweet fruity drinks

• Herbal

She managed to cure her flu with hot herbal tea

• Honeyed

I love eating savory nut cakes with honeyed berries

• Piping hot

The cook makes sure that the meal is piping hot before serving

• Nutty

The cookies are nutty and crunchy

• Rich

Emily loves drinking herbal tea after having a rich meal

• Sharp

The sugarless lemon juice is pretty sharp

• Smoky 

The spicy pizza is served with a smoky-flavored hot pepper sauce

• Sour

She blends the sour cream with cornflour to make a hearty eggplant meal

• Spicy

The spicy tomato sauce goes best with creamy ravioli

• Sweet

Children love sweet and savory food

• Tangy

The roasted meat has a tangy fresh flavor

• Tart

This vegetable puree is sharply tart

• Yeasty

The bread she baked yesterday had a strong yeasty flavor

• Zesty

The chef prepared a delicious juice that had a zesty blend of citrus flavors

How Do You Describe Food ( In terms of Texture)?

When describing your food You might want to consider adjectives that describe food texture. The list below represents some hearty words that are commonly used to describe food texture.

How Do You Describe Food ( In terms of Cooking Style)?

The cooking style or the preparation method is also an important factor when giving a clear description of food. Let us consider the following list of food descriptive adjectives.

1. Baked
2. Blanched
3. Blackened
4. Braised
5. Breaded
6. Broiled
7. Caramelized
8. Charred
9. Fermented
10. Fried
11. Glazed
12. Infused
13. Marinated
14. Poached
15. Roasted
16. Sauteed
17. Seared
18. Smoked
19. Whipped

Related Questions

What Are Some Beautiful and Descriptive Food Words?

Try to Explore appealing terms when you are trying to describe food. This is an interesting list of some unusual but delightful words you might use to describe the next meal you prepare or eat.

Bouffage	Amuse-Bouche	Sapid	Omakase	Delectable	Speustic
Tarnisher	Apéritifs	Haute Cuisine	Ambrosial	Chiffonade	Mouthwatering
Forenoons	Confection	Postprandial	Orts	Divine	Unctuous
Dulcet	Mirepoix	Piquant	Gustatory	Saporific	Gut-gullie
Bonne Bouche	Victuals	Toothsome	Rassasy	Borborygmus	Scrumptious
Kickshaw	Roux	Sobremesa	Uitbuiken	Linnard	Groak

How Do You Describe Food (How Do You Want Your Eggs)?

You might be asked someday “How do you want your egg?”. The following list is about famous terms to describe the way eggs are cooked. These words will certainly increase your confidence anytime you are engaged in a conversation about food in general, and eggs in particular.

How Do You Describe Food? (A To Z List of Words to Describe Food)

1. acrid
2. aftertaste
3. aged
4. ambrosial
5. ample
6. appealing
7. appetizing
8. aromatic
9. astringent
10. baked
11. balsamic
12. beautiful
13. bland
14. blazed
15. blended
16. blunt
17. boiled
18. brackish
19. briny
20. browned
21. buttered
22. caked
23. candied
24. caramelized
25. caustic
26. center cut
27. char-broiled
28. cheesy
29. chilled
30. chocolate
31. chocolate flavored
32. cholesterol free
33. chunked
34. cinnamon
35. classic
36. classy
37. clove coated
38. cold
39. cool
40. copious
41. country
42. crafted
43. creamed
44. creamy
45. crisp
46. crunchy
47. cured
48. dazzling
49. deep-fried
50. delectable
51. delicious
52. delightful
53. distinctive
54. doughy
55. dressed
56. dripping
57. drizzled
58. dry
59. dulcified
60. edible
61. encrusted
62. epicurean taste
63. ethnic
64. extraordinary
65. famous
66. fantastic
67. fetid
68. fiery
69. filet
70. fizzy
71. flaky
72. flat
73. flavored
74. flavorful
75. flavorsome
76. fleshy
77. fluffy
78. free – range
79. fresh
80. fried
81. frosty
82. frozen
83. fruity
84. full
85. full-bodied
86. furry
87. famy
88. garlicky
89. generous portion
90. gingery
91. glazed
92. golden
93. gorgeous
94. gourmet
95. greasy
96. grilled
97. gritty
98. gustatory
99. heady
100. heaping
101. heart healthy
102. heart smart
103. hearty
104. heavenly
105. homemade
106. honeyed
107. honey-glazed
108. hot
109. ice-cold
110. icy
111. incisive
112. indulgent
113. infused
114. insipid
115. intense
116. intriguing
117. juicy
118. jumbo
119. kosher
120. large
121. lavish
122. layered
123. leathery
124. lemon less
125. light / lite
126. lightly salted
127. lightly-breaded
128. lip smacking
129. lively
130. low sodium
131. low-fat
132. lukewarm
133. luscious
134. lush
135. marinated
136. mashed
137. mellow
138. mild
139. minty
140. mixed
141. moist
142. mouth-watering
143. nationally-famous
144. natural
145. nectarous
146. non-fat
147. nutmeg
148. nutty
149. oily
150. open face
151. organic
152. overpowering
153. palatable
154. penetrating
155. peppery
156. perfect
157. petite
158. pickled
159. plain
160. pleasant
161. plump
162. poached
163. popular
164. pounded
165. prepared
166. prickly
167. pulpy
168. pureed
169. refresh
170. rich
171. roasted
172. rubbery
173. saccharine
174. saline
175. salty
176. savory
177. Sapid
178. saporific
179. saporous
180. satin
181. sauteed
182. savory
183. scrumptious
184. seared
185. seasoned
186. sharp
187. sharp-tasting
188. silky
189. simmered
190. sizzling
191. small
192. smelly
193. smoked
194. smoky
195. smooth
196. smothered
197. soothing
198. Sour
199. Southern-style
200. special
201. spiced
202. spicy
203. spiral-cut
204. spongy
205. sprinkled
206. stale
207. steamed
208. steamy
209. sticky
210. stinging
211. Strawberry flavored
212. stuffed
213. succulent
214. sugar-coated
215. sugar-free
216. sugared
217. sugarless
218. sugary
219. superb
220. sweet
221. sweet-and-sour
222. sweetened
223. syrupy
224. tangy
225. tantalizing
226. tart
227. tasteful
228. tasty
229. tender
230. tepid
231. terrific
232. thick
233. thin
234. toasted
235. toothsome
236. topped
237. tossed
238. tough
239. traditional
240. treacly (overly sweet)
241. unseasoned
242. vanilla flavored
243. velvety
244. vinegary
245. warm
246. waxy
247. whipped
248. whole
249. wonderful
250. yucky
251. yummy
252. zesty
253. zingy

Adjectives to Describe Food: Free ESL Poster

How many words do you know that can be used as adjectives to describe the food in English? There was once in a group class in 3D Academy, my teacher, Isaac (from America) offered some interesting experiment for us. He suggested that we close our eyes, try the Filipino snacks and describe the food in English. We had to guess what the food was after describing the food.

American Teacher in 3D – Isaac had always been popular among the students because of his unconventional way of teaching

We gladly agreed to participate in this fun activity.

The first participant was a Spanish student, Sergio. Isaac came to him and open a famous Filipino snack – Mango in chocolate . We saw it, but the student from Spain didn’t. So he began to watch that process of guessing and describing. When he hold the food, he has the first guess what is this.

**Conversation in the Class**

Isaac: Sergio, do you know what is this?
Sergio: Yes, this is candy.
Isaac: How do you describe the taste, smell, texture of the candy? Please try.
Sergio: Sweet, delicious, soft..
Isaac: And?

And that moment Sergio fell silent. All other students also kept quiet. It’s not because we didn’t want to interrupt with Sergio’s thought process. It’s because we were thinking about the same thing ourselves “How else we can describe a food? How many adjectives we know for this? How many ways we don’t know yet?”

***



Now I would like to share with you about my discoveries of the adjectives to describe something nice about foods that we learned in the class.

Adjectives to Describe the #Taste of food (Nice Food)

- delicious — appealing to one of the bodily senses especially of taste or smell (Formal)
- tasty —  having a marked and appetizing flavor (Informal)
- yummy — highly attractive or pleasing (The least Formal)

**More Adjectives**
- Savory— pleasing to the sense of taste or smell especially by reason of effective seasoning (Can’t use it for sweet food)
- appetizing — appealing to the appetite especially in appearance or aroma
- toothsome — of palatable flavor and pleasing texture
- dainty — something delicious to the taste
- flavorous — having a pleasant or pungent flavor
- gustable — appetizing; something with a distinguish taste
- Scrumptious — extremely tasty; delicious. (This word evolved from the word sumptuous)
– mouth-watering — smelling, looking, or sounding delicious

Let’s take a look at Gordon Ramsay show’s legendary moment: He finished the entire plate of Sausage roll without saying anything! Sometimes the delicious food doesn’t need any adjective word!

Adjectives to Describe the #Smell of food (Nice Food)

– Sweet – having the pleasant taste characteristic of sugar or honey; not salty, sour, or bitter
– Aromatic – having a noticeable and pleasant smell
– Pleasant – having an odor that is pleasing
– Fragrant – having a pleasing aroma; perfumed, aromatic

Adjectives to Describe the #Texture of food (Nice Food)

– Tender – easy to cut or chew; not tough.
– Juicy – full of juice; succulent.
– Creamy – resembling cream
– Crumbly – is easily broken into a lot of little pieces
– Gooey – soft and sticky (Let’s take a look at some of the gooey food)
– Moist – slightly wet or damp
– Spongy – porous, airy.

**Conversation in the Class**
After Sergio described the mango in Chocolate, the next student who had the brave heart to try is Jack, our Chinese student. He was ready to close his eyes and try something unknown. We watched with interest what Isaac gave to him. The teacher turned away so that we would not see what he had prepared. A few minutes later he turned back and showed what was in his palm. It was candy with durian.

We were horrified, everyone knows how bad the taste and smell of this legendary fruit is. It’s good that this was not seen by Jack, the Chinese student who was sitting there with his eyes closed and was ready to participate in this interesting game. Isaac asked him «Are you ready?» Of course, Jack already had some hesitation because he heard our surprised whisper. But he answered «Yes» courageously. The teacher put a durian candy on the hand of Jack.

He touched it in his hands and for a long time he was so hesitated to taste it. Maybe he guessed that it was something not tasty? Finally, he put it in his mouth and started to chew. We waited with interest, what did he feel? After a couple of seconds, the student stopped chewing and opened his eyes. His eyes were full of horror and cried for help. We laughed. Of course, he spat out the candy and quickly began to drink a lot of water. Now we asked him to describe his feeling. He just answered «It was unfair!!» and continued to drink water. **Oh Poor Jack…

***

So, I want to share with you some ways to describe some foods that is not delicious.

Adjectives to Describe the #Taste (Bad Food)

– Terrible – extremely or distressingly bad
– Disgusting – arousing revulsion or strong indignation
– Revolting – causing intense disgust; disgusting
– Unpalatable – not pleasant to taste
– Sugary – containing too much sugar
– Unsavory – disagreeable to taste, smell, or look at.
– Distasteful – causing dislike or disgust, unpleasant
– Sickening – causing or liable to cause a feeling of nausea or disgust
– Gross – very unpleasant; repulsive

Adjectives to Describe the #Smell (Bad Food)

– Nasty – highly unpleasant, especially to the senses
– Smelly – having a strong or unpleasant smell
– Fetid – smelling extremely unpleasant
– Malodorous – smelling very unpleasant
– Rammish – smelling bad
– Ranckness – a strong, unpleasant smell
– Specific – clearly defined or identified (This adjective is slightly more neutral)

Adjectives to Describe the #Texture (Bad Food)

– Hard – not easily chew
– Rough – having an uneven or irregular surface
– Dry – free from moisture or liquid
– Greasy – covered with or resembling an oily substance
– Slimy – covered by or having the feel or consistency of slime
– Viscous – having a high viscosity

**Conversation in the Class**
The teacher asked us who else wanted to participate in this experiment. All of us did not dare to answer probably because no one wanted to try the disgusting food. But Isaac said that he had only one candy with durian and there were no more nasty snacks. We believed him and continued to participate with great pleasure. Next was Emma, the Japanese student. She closed her eyes and held out her hand. We looked patiently at what the teacher would give her. In his hands we noticed a packet of roasted nuts and we became a little upset because that was too normal.

After the experiment with the durian candy, we had an increased interest in unusual snacks. Isaac poured some nuts into her outstretched palm. Like Jack, Emma first touched it, then sniffed it and immediately determined that it was nuts. But the teacher suggested that she tried it first. She, without hesitation, sent them to her mouth. After a second, she opened her eyes and looked at us in surprise. «They are very spicy, but I like it.» And she asked for more. It was the spicy nuts! It was a lucky day for Emma!

***

Alright I would like to share with you more ways to describe a food that have specific tastes. Some people might like it and some might not

Adjectives to describe foods with specific taste

– Bitter – having a strong, often unpleasant taste e.g. coffee and dark chocolate. (Some people really like the bitter coffee and dark chocolate!)
– Bland – boring, not interesting, tasteless
– Spicy – having strong flavors from spice.
– Rich – Rich food with a rich taste from a lot of butter, cream, or eggs in it.
– Salty – tastes of salt.
– Sour – having a sharp taste e.g yogurt, lemon.
– Piping hot – very hot / spicy
– Crunchy – firm and making a loud noise when it is eaten

I hope my article will be useful for you to expand your vocabulary. And join us in 3D Academy , we have a lot of fun and interesting activities during the lessons awaits!

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Extension Reading

If you would like to learn Russian, please find the Russian Version Below

Adjective to describe food in English (Russian Version) – Сколько вы знаете прилагательных для описания еды на английском языке

If you would like to learn Chinese, please find the Chinese Version Below

Adjective to describe food in English (Chinese Version) –英語小教室. 形容食物的英文