recipe
Americannoun
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recipes
plural
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a set of instructions for making or preparing something, especially a food dish.
a recipe for a cake.
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a medical prescription.
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a method to attain a desired end.
a recipe for success.
noun
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a list of ingredients and directions for making something, esp a food preparation
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med (formerly) a medical prescription
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a method for achieving some desired objective
a recipe for success
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of recipe
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin: take, imperative singular of recipere to receive
Explanation
A recipe is directions for making a dish or dessert, like your mother's award-winning recipe for chocolate chip cookies. The word recipe is most often used when talking about cooking. It includes two things: a list of ingredients that you'll need and the steps to take in order to make it. You can find recipes in cookbooks, on Web sites, in newspapers and magazines — or handed down in your family. Other than cooking, a recipe can also be a formula: the recipe for success is hard work, good timing and a little luck.
Vocabulary lists containing recipe
Words to Know Before You Defrost the Bird
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List 7
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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:
And the recipe has changed to make the snack healthier, he said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
“When you add Alice’s resistance to their joy into it, it’s a good recipe for comedy.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but when you play it back, you can practically see the steam rising from your speakers.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Rather than explain how a leaner fish or one packed in oil might change the cake, the recipe simply expands to encompass nearly anything.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
He whipped up a very colorful taco pizza based on a recipe he just seemed to know.
From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein
Near Bedford in the UK, it's where the company's researchers dream up new recipes and develop their production processes.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
We’re in the prime season for cooking with aromatics like basil, parsley, and mint, but recipes too often waste these ingredients’ potential.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
That team is in the process of digitizing more than two decades of notebooks filled with recipes, ideas and fermentation logs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
“We have a lot of terrific menu items, but some of our recipes and processes haven’t evolved in decades,” Masino said in 2024.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
He cooked for Cathy, going through recipes used by his mother and his stepmother.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
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.
