ingest
Americanverb (used with object)
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ingests,
present (3rd person singular)
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ingested,
past participle, past
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ingesting
present participle
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to take, as food, into the body (opposed to egest).
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Aeronautics. to draw (foreign matter) into the inlet of a jet engine, often causing damage to the engine.
verb
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to take (food or liquid) into the body
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(of a jet engine) to suck in (an object, a bird, etc)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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ingestionnoun
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reingestverb (used with object)
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ingestibleadjective
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ingestiveadjective
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uningestedadjective
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uningestiveadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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ingestsimple
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ingestssimple
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have ingestedperfect
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has ingestedperfect
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am ingestingprogressive
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are ingestingprogressive
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is ingestingprogressive
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have been ingestingperfect progressive
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has been ingestingperfect progressive
Past
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ingestedsimple
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had ingestedperfect
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was ingestingprogressive
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were ingestingprogressive
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had been ingestingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ingest
First recorded in 1610–20; from Latin ingestus, past participle of ingerere “to throw or pour into”; see in- 2, gest
Explanation
When you ingest something, you swallow it or otherwise consume it. If you don't ingest enough iron, you'll feel tired and weak and you'll look pale. Trees ingest carbon dioxide, and humans ingest the oxygen that trees in turn produce. We also ingest a lot of other things, like French fries, ice cream, and root beer. You can also use this word to mean "take in information," like when you ingest the details of your history book. Ingest has a Latin root, ingestus, "poured in," from in-, "into," and gerere, "to carry."
Vocabulary lists containing ingest
The Body Eclectic: Words For Common Physical Functions
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
The Smartest Kid in the Universe
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Iveliz Explains It All
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.
See Examples For:
It found that balloons were 32 times more likely to result in death than when birds ingest hard plastic.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
They’d ingest all of your financial information into their software and would have checklists to make sure they got all the relevant information.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
This is the dark matter of nutrition – the compounds we ingest daily but haven’t been mapped or studied.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 17, 2026
I don’t think it’s great if you accidentally ingest one of them.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
If you ingest too much swainsonine you are bound to starve, no matter how much food you put into your stomach.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
The novel begins when Gelsomina ingests five parasitic worms after lapping up lake water.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
All of the carbon in the trees and twigs the machine ingests ends up in the ground — not back in the air.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2025
Frightful extras: The included Blu-ray version of the film ingests all of the digital goodies from the high definition release back in 2009.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 26, 2023
But there are other risk factors for TCE exposure, which occurs when a person breathes, ingests or touches the chemical.
From Seattle Times ● May 6, 2023
One ingests a horse-doctor's dose of words, but fails to acquire any illumination.
From A Book of Prefaces by H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken
She’s ingested so much AI-generated content that it’s now coming out of her mouth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
I knew very little about Carolyn, but I ingested so many photos of her far before this project was ever on my radar.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
In the environment, microplastics can be ingested by fish and other wildlife, potentially moving up the food chain and eventually reaching humans.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 18, 2026
"However, the container which fell was left behind and it got ingested into the No. 2 engine of the aircraft," Air India added.
From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2026
I have looked through my father’s World War II scrapbook many times; I have seen Vietnam on television; I have ingested countless movies about Ancient Rome or the battles of the Middle Ages.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Much depends on what’s raising your body temperature in the first place — if you have a fever due to an infection, for example, see a doctor rather than ingesting peppermint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
It’s a position that has put Palantir at odds with leading AI labs, whom Karp has characterized as looking to “colonize” their customers by ingesting their business intelligence and proprietary data.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
According to state figures, external, 286 people there have been infected by cyclosporiasis - which comes from ingesting the cyclospora parasite, and includes symptoms like "explosive diarrhoea".
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
France is mulling how to prevent people from ingesting too much of the heavy metal cadmium, after a warning their breakfast cereal and baguettes could be contaminated with the toxin.
From Barron's ● May 13, 2026
More plausibly, he told of feeding his initial sample by eyedropper to a mouse, which showed no ill effects after ingesting what was then “the world supply” of heavy water.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
