comestible
Americanadjective
noun
-
comestibles
plural
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of comestible
1475–85; < Late Latin comēstibilis, equivalent to Latin comēst ( us ), past participle of comedere to eat up ( see comedo; -ēstus for -ēs ( s ) us by analogy with gestus, ūstus, etc.; see combust) + -ibilis -ible; see eat
Explanation
Anything that you could possibly use for food is a comestible, a synonym of "edible." It can be used as a noun ("We shopped for comestibles") or an adjective ("It looked awful, but was comestible"). The word comestible, a rather formal-sounding word for food, has its roots in the Latin word comedere, which means "to eat up." Since comestible shares a background with the word consume, you will hopefully remember its meaning. Comestible was first recorded in the 15th century, and it bounced around as an adjective before becoming a noun in the 19th century.
Vocabulary lists containing comestible
List 8
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A Walk in the Woods
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David Copperfield
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Pizza then exploded in popularity after the Second World War when returning servicemen brought home a seemingly universal passion for the tasty comestible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
But what happens when those scouts find a comestible motherlode?
From Science Daily ● Nov. 16, 2024
She concocted an ideal Sunday itinerary in which her cravings would guide her on a crosstown comestible spree.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2024
She'll often riff on nostalgic flavors, like the Hawaiian Hurricane Popcorn she grew up eating, toying with the idea that the butter mochi itself is a comestible link to childhood comfort.
From Salon ● Dec. 6, 2021
The menu consisted solely of "sea-pie" a comestible apparently composed of lumps of salt-beef stuck into slabs of very tough dough, and the result boiled in a hurried and perfunctory manner.
From Reminiscences of a South African Pioneer by W. C. (William Charles) Scully
The food fight that explodes in the play’s third movement is conducted with comestibles so rubbery they might be part of a clown show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026
Pretty much the only comestibles in stock are bags of candy and jars of baby food, which makes Jeffrey one of the first screen criminals to fret about tooth decay.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
“Labor and Leisure,” her McLean Project for the Arts show, consists of 14 lightboxes in which cutout figures encapsulate the stories of such comestibles as coffee, candy and corn syrup.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 3, 2022
In 2019 or 2020, Newmaster became a science adviser to Purity-IQ, a startup that, like Tru-ID, aims to certify the ingredients of foods, herbs, wine, cannabis, and other comestibles.
From Science Magazine ● Feb. 1, 2022
He throws his hands—with my comestibles still in them—into the air.
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
