stomach
Americannoun
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Anatomy, Zoology.
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a saclike enlargement of the alimentary canal, as in humans and certain animals, forming an organ for storing, diluting, and digesting food.
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such an organ or an analogous portion of the alimentary canal when divided into two or more sections or parts.
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any one of these sections.
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Zoology. any analogous digestive cavity or tract in invertebrates.
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the part of the body containing the stomach; belly or abdomen.
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appetite for food.
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desire, inclination, or liking.
I have no stomach for this trip.
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Obsolete.
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spirit; courage.
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pride; haughtiness.
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resentment; anger.
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verb (used with object)
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to endure or tolerate (someone or something).
I can't stomach your constant nagging.
- Synonyms:
- countenance, abide, stand, bear
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Obsolete. to be offended at or resent.
noun
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(in vertebrates) the enlarged muscular saclike part of the alimentary canal in which food is stored until it has been partially digested and rendered into chyme
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the corresponding digestive organ in invertebrates
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the abdominal region
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desire, appetite, or inclination
I have no stomach for arguments
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an archaic word for temper
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an obsolete word for pride
verb
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to tolerate; bear
I can't stomach his bragging
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to eat or digest
he cannot stomach oysters
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stomachsimple
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stomachssimple
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have stomachedperfect
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has stomachedperfect
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am stomachingprogressive
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are stomachingprogressive
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is stomachingprogressive
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have been stomachingperfect progressive
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has been stomachingperfect progressive
Past
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stomachedsimple
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had stomachedperfect
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was stomachingprogressive
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were stomachingprogressive
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had been stomachingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stomach
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English stomak, from Latin stomachus “gullet, stomach,” from Greek stómachos originally, “opening”; akin to stoma
Explanation
The stomach is the organ of your body — kind of a big sac — that digests food. We also say people have a stomach for something unpleasant when they can handle it. Without a stomach, you'd be in trouble: that's where your food gets digested and turned into useful material your body can use for energy. If you ever got punched in the stomach or had a stomach ache, it can hurt a lot. Also, stomach can mean having a hunger, or at least tolerance, for something. If you can't stomach watching football, then you can't stand watching it. If you have a stomach for something, you can swallow it.
Vocabulary lists containing stomach
Nutrition and Digestion - Introductory
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Nutrition and Digestion - High School
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Nutrition and Digestion - Middle School
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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:
Symptoms included stinging eyes, head pain, lung problems and stomach ailments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
The finished dish is beautifully green, tender and, yes, gentle on your stomach.
From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026
These include repeatedly waking up throughout the night to relieve himself and "stomach aches real bad".
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
Investors who can stomach a little short-term volatility are often rewarded.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
The slush in my stomach melts away at his teasing tone.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Interestingly, the number of Chinook and coho salmon found in pike stomachs dropped over the past decade.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 25, 2026
Patients who went under the knife late last year are now debuting tighter skin, flatter stomachs and lifted eyelids to their social networks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 7, 2026
Fall is the time of year when bears really begin to think with their stomachs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2025
The study examined only plastics found inside the stomachs of animals.
From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2025
They dropped to their knees, then their stomachs.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
Venture-capital firms have stomached vast losses in part because OpenAI and Anthropic are among the fastest-growing businesses in the history of tech.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
And the Pac-12 championship defeat to the Utes could be easily stomached due to Williams’ hamstring injury which limited his transcendence for one half.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2023
McDonald's engineered a relatively smooth sale to Govor for an undisclosed fee, but stomached a non-cash charge of $1.4 billion and forfeited $300 million in annual operating income.
From Reuters ● Dec. 16, 2022
If they had, I could have stomached it more,” said Jill Roberts, who co-owns a wine bar in downtown Helena, Mont. “It came out of left field.”
From New York Times ● May 15, 2021
He could never have digested horse-beef among the Kalmucks, or stomached the rancid sour-krout of Old Haarlem, without this indispensable qualification.
From Shoulder-Straps A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 by Morford, Henry
Investing in an IPO means stomaching the potential for volatility in early trading.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
I have trouble stomaching the fact that my niece and nephew will never have to work.
From Slate ● Apr. 7, 2023
“And, with transit not given the priority and service to get Angelenos to many destinations reliably, many are left stomaching higher gas prices instead.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2022
Well if you've got nobody to share it with because you're all alone and isolated then it takes some stomaching.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2021
The local returns of dead rats were not made by the bills of mortality, but by the bills of fare: it was getting rid of a nuisance by the unheard-of process of stomaching a nuisance!
From Rambles Beyond Railways; or, Notes in Cornwall taken A-foot by Collins, Wilkie
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.
