culinary
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of culinary
1630–40; < Latin culīnārius of the kitchen, equivalent to culīn ( a ) kitchen, food + -ārius -ary
Explanation
Culinary means having to do with cooking or the kitchen. If you go to culinary school, you're learning how to cook, most likely because you want to work as a chef. If you have a culinary streak, you might love cooking for your friends or maybe just watching cooking shows on TV. If your culinary repertoire includes nothing beyond tuna sandwiches and mac-and-cheese out of the box, you have a lot to learn, culinarily speaking!
Vocabulary lists containing culinary
Eat Your Words
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The First Rule of Punk
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With the Fire on High
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
She also spends part of her time teaching at Yale University, and the University of Massachusetts Boston, and in local schools, where she runs seaweed units in culinary programmes.
From BBC • Apr. 29, 2026
For some, the cost highlights how dining out has become prohibitively expensive in one of the world's culinary capitals.
From Barron's • Apr. 28, 2026
There’s a long culinary history behind this instinct.
From Salon • Apr. 28, 2026
Not on the culinary stage, because it was all chicken.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 26, 2026
Hercules had learned his skills in Mount Vernon’s kitchen, and Wash Custis later described Hercules as “a celebrated artiste...as highly accomplished a proficient in the culinary art as could be found in the United States.”
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
