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:
"A useful visual prosthesis cannot rely on a fixed recipe," Beyeler said.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 12, 2026
“We just attributed part of that to the little recipe of things that were holding it all together.”
From Slate ● Nov. 12, 2026
They both want to claim top honours, but Pierce feels he will have the edge if he can get the peppercorn sauce recipe off the chef at QPR.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2026
When hosting A-listers and models at his London townhouse, Mert Alas has a recipe for memorable dinner parties: Caviar pasta, Edwardian crystal and gin “golden martinis”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
One ritual the men looked forward to was hearing a recipe from a small paperback cookbook that Marston had.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
REI has recipes for applewood smoked turkey, smashed sweet potatoes and upside-down apple pie made in a cast-iron pan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 2026
Now the cheese is being used as a spread and appearing in recipes for everything from scrambled eggs to ice cream.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 7, 2026
Additional recipes and nutritional information are available at Mango.org and LoveOneToday.com.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 3, 2026
If you'd like to include more iron in your diet, try some of these BBC Food recipes.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026
But their recipes could use a bit less magic and more reality.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
