recipe
Americannoun
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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
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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Passover Vocabulary
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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.
To understand Somali food, you have to grind up a batch of xawaash, the first recipe in Ifrah F. Ahmed’s “Soomaaliya.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
"Ultimately, the recipe has to be good – there are some really awful ones," she says, referencing strange combinations she has seen in cookbooks, including banana and herring and lamb and crab.
From BBC • Apr. 17, 2026
Hershey said in response that it adjusts its formulations for new shapes and other innovations, but keeps the original peanut butter cup recipe.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
Had I only been given the recipe, had I not tasted it first, I know I would have dismissed it without a second glance.
From Salon • Apr. 13, 2026
"She was standing right behind Kendra. And she said their new recipe was top secret and a winner!"
From "Scream for Ice Cream: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #2" by Carolyn Keene
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.
