vegan
Americannoun
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vegans
plural
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a vegetarian who omits all animal products from the diet.
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a person who does not use any animal products, as leather or wool.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of vegan
First recorded in 1940–45; contraction of veg(etari)an
Explanation
If you’re a vegan, you’re a strict vegetarian, and you don’t eat anything that comes from an animal, including meat, fish, eggs, and dairy. A vegan diet is heavy on fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains. Because only animal products contain cholesterol, vegans often have lower blood cholesterol than the bacon-cheeseburger crowd. As vegan diets have become more popular, many restaurants now offer a range of vegan choices, like veggie burgers and bean burritos. As you no doubt noticed, vegan is related to vegetarian and vegetable.
Vocabulary lists containing vegan
Common Five-letter Words for Wordle, List 3
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Nutrition - Middle School
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A Toast to Bread
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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:
Nolan, the Conagra demand scientist, has seen gluten-free, vegan, keto, low-carb and fat-free diets all wane and wax in popularity over the years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Participants were assigned either to an ad libitum low-fat vegan diet centered on fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes, or to a control group that continued eating as usual without making any dietary changes.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
Crawley-born Ranganathan, who is vegan, initially became involved with the business because of its range of plant-based products, but will not be involved in the new venture.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
A longtime cat rescuer, the former vegan chef with an arts background started out as a volunteer, then later became an employee.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
“I’d appreciate something a little more specific than dots of vegan options.’
From "Leah on the Offbeat" by Becky Albertalli
A bus-stop ad reading “We made this specifically for vegans and non-vegans and for normally-not-vegan-but-sometimes-flexi-veggie-person-tarians” helped consumers understand what the product was and who should buy it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
Vegetarians and vegans, who typically consume little or no creatine through diet, often start with lower levels and may respond more strongly to supplementation.
From Science Daily ● May 4, 2026
"At that time, in 2016, there were already some vegans, but far fewer than today. It was also much harder to find certain products," Chassaignon recalled.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2025
The end result is a high-protein powder that is essentially dairy, but which Verley says is suitable for vegans as no cows are involved.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2025
And veganism, although Sasha disliked the way other vegans on the Internet made such a huge deal about it.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
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.
