umami

[ oo-mah-mee ]

noun

1. a strong meaty taste imparted by glutamate and certain other amino acids: often considered to be one of the basic taste sensations along with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.

Word History and Origins

Origin of umami¹

First recorded in 1960–65; from Japanese: literally, “savory quality, delicious taste,” equivalent to uma-, the inflectional stem of umai “(to be) delicious” + -mi, a suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives

Example Sentences

You can almost place it, it’s just at the tip of your tongue … ah, umami.

From Popular-Science

These tools will be a great help to researchers who want to get a deeper understanding of what sets off the flood of umami flavors on the tongue—and in the brain.

From Popular-Science

Here’s how to turn your grilled cheese sandwich into an umami bombAdd crunch on the outside.

From Washington Post

Recently I used it to saute shredded pieces of cabbage for an infusion of umami, or you can melt it and toss it with cauliflower instead of oil before roasting.

From Washington Post

For her, the cells added “umami flavor” to the plant burger and increased its juiciness—all for a much lower price than a pure cultured burger.

From MIT Technology Review

This unsmoked, wet-cured ham is the sine qua non of Parisian butcher shops: a light, ephemeral meat, sweet but umami.

From The Daily Beast

If “umami” was recently accepted into the lexicon...maybe “tomato-ey” isn't that far behind.

From The Daily Beast