ingredient

American  

[in-gree-dee-uhnt] / ɪnˈgri di ənt /

noun

ingredients plural

1. something that enters as an element into a mixture.

   Flour, eggs, and sugar are the main ingredients in the cake.

2. a constituent element of anything; component.

   the ingredients of political success.

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ingredient British  

/ ɪnˈɡriːdɪənt /

noun

1. a component of a mixture, compound, etc, esp in cooking

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Synonym Usage

See element.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ingredients
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ingredient

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English from Latin ingredient- (stem of ingrediēns ), present participle of ingredī “to go or step into, commence,” equivalent to in- in- ² + -gredient- “going”; see gradient

Explanation

An ingredient is one part of a mixture. For example, if you're making chocolate chip cookies, flour is just one ingredient you'll need. Ingredient comes from the Latin word ingredientem, meaning "that which enters into." It's not just for cookies. If you're in the lab mixing a chemical compound, you carefully add one ingredient after the next and record the results (and hope nothing blows up). It's also an element or factor of something, such as how that song you wrote has all the ingredients to be a sure-fire hit! Remember that it ends in -ent, since often what you Eat has ingrediEnts.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ingredient ingredients

Contestants were set the task of transforming a staple ingredient into a dish "fit for a duchess", although the duchess herself urged her fellow judges to “call me Meghan”.

From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026

The focus was on raw concentrates of the rechargeable battery ingredient lithium, with most of its hundreds of thousands of tons of annual production shipped out to China, the world's largest maker of electric vehicles.

From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026

The delay could make it more difficult for ill people to remember all the foods they ate, “down to a single ingredient in a salad,” before they were stricken, Rimoin said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

In 1982, Il Yeon Kwon, a Korean immigrant, realized that New Yorkers needed a reliable source for napa cabbage, the essential ingredient in kimchi, and opened a small grocery store in Queens.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026

‘It’s the final ingredient to cure death, Zhang. It’s a super daisy! How about you guys? Learn anything from Artemis?’

From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan

Each blended its tallow with additional ingredients — jojoba oil being the most significant.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026

Meals used in the clinical trial are prepared in a controlled metabolic kitchen, where researchers measure ingredients to the nearest 0.1 gram.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026

At processing facilities, typically near fields, raw lettuce may be cut and blended with other ingredients.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

The bulks list rather dictates what ingredients compounding pharmacies can use when mixing custom medications for patients with a specific prescription.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

The jar's ingredients heated, sizzled, and swirled into a tiny dark storm.

From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton

Related Words

• additive
• element
• factor
• piece