Added 8 October 2026
vegetable
/ˈvɛd͡ʒ.tə.bəl/ noun
In Latin: holus Wiktionary
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about vegetable at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- Any plant.
- A plant raised for some edible part of it, such as the leaves, roots, fruit or flowers, but excluding any plant considered to be a fruit, grain, herb, or spice in the culinary sense, and usually including non-plants lumped into the same culinary category, such as edible mushrooms and seaweed.
- The edible part of such a plant.
adjective
Origin
From Middle English vegetable, from Old French vegetable, from Latin vegetābilis (“able to live and grow”), derived from vegetāre (“to enliven”). Displaced Old English wyrt and ofett, whence modern wort and ovest. Related to vigil, vigour, vajra, and waker.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)