gustation
Americannoun
-
the act of tasting.
-
the faculty of taste.
noun
Other Word Forms
- gustatory adjective
Etymology
Origin of gustation
1590–1600; < Latin gustātiōn- (stem of gustātiō ), equivalent to gustāt ( us ) (past participle of gustāre to taste) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
Gustation is a fancy word for "taste." It's gustation that allows you to experience sweetness and saltiness when you bite into a barbecue potato chip. Gustation, from the Latin gustare, "to taste, partake of, or enjoy," shares a Proto-Indo-European root with gusto. This is especially apt when you think about enthusiastically eating a meal that's complex and delicious. The process of gustation involves tastes like salty, sour, sweet, and bitter. Gustation begins when you take a bite of food and special cells on your tongue's taste buds begin to react chemically with it.
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.
When we taste something we are actually experiencing a combination of three senses: touch, smell and taste – or gustation – which combine to produce the flavors we perceive in food and drinks.
From Science Daily • Feb. 9, 2026
What we eat is heavily influenced by the process of gustation, which refers to how our sense of taste helps us decide what to consume based on flavor preferences.
From Science Daily • Oct. 4, 2023
And if success or gustation or family is not enough to avoid the traps of existential despair, what is?
From Salon • Jun. 11, 2018
The sensory pathway for gustation travels along the facial and glossopharyngeal cranial nerves, which synapse with neurons of the solitary nucleus in the brain stem.
From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013
CP: The ear dominates the ear, nose, and throat discipline, and although specialists should be open to treating olfaction and gustation disorders, the nose is often considered a poor and uninteresting relative.
From Slate • May 12, 2013
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.
