taste bud

American  

noun

taste buds plural

1. one of numerous small, flask-shaped bodies, chiefly in the epithelium of the tongue, which are the end organs for the sense of taste.

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taste bud British  

noun

1. any of the elevated oval-shaped sensory end organs on the surface of the tongue, by means of which the sensation of taste is experienced

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taste bud Scientific  

/ tāst /

1. Any of numerous sense organs in most vertebrate animals that are specialized to detect taste. Taste buds are sensitive to four types of taste: sweet, sour, salty, or bitter. In land vertebrates, the taste buds are found on the surface of the tongue. Fish have taste buds all over their bodies.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• taste buds
  plural

Etymology

Origin of taste bud

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

taste bud

"This is just the beginning of research to create climate resilient fruit and create a fruit that is acceptable to the Indian taste bud."

From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2025

The team found that participants who took semaglutide had improved taste sensitivity along with changes to their taste bud gene expression and brain activity after eating something sweet.

From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2024

Taste bud cells from wildtype mice showed a sharp increase in action potentials after ammonium chloride was added while taste bud cells from the mice lacking OTOP1 failed to respond to the salt.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 5, 2023

The grinning purple blob has commonly been interpreted by others as a taste bud.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2023

Others have argued that Grimace is a giant taste bud.

From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2023