vegetable
Americannoun
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any plant whose fruit, seeds, roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves, or flower parts are used as food, as the tomato, bean, beet, potato, onion, asparagus, spinach, or cauliflower.
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the edible part of such a plant, as the tuber of the potato.
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any member of the plant kingdom; plant.
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Informal. a person who is so severely impaired mentally or physically as to be largely incapable of conscious responses or activity.
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a dull, spiritless, and uninteresting person.
adjective
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of, consisting of, or made from edible vegetables.
a vegetable diet.
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of, relating to, or characteristic of plants.
the vegetable kingdom.
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derived from plants.
vegetable fiber; vegetable oils.
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consisting of, comprising, or containing the substance or remains of plants.
vegetable matter; a vegetable organism.
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of the nature of or resembling a plant.
the vegetable forms of Art Nouveau ornament.
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inactive; inert; dull; uneventful.
a vegetable existence.
noun
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any of various herbaceous plants having parts that are used as food, such as peas, beans, cabbage, potatoes, cauliflower, and onions
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informal a person who has lost control of his mental faculties, limbs, etc, as from an injury, mental disease, etc
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a dull inactive person
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( as modifier )
a vegetable life
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(modifier) consisting of or made from edible vegetables
a vegetable diet
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(modifier) of, relating to, characteristic of, derived from, or consisting of plants or plant material
vegetable oils
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rare any member of the plant kingdom
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A plant that is cultivated for an edible part, such as the leaf of spinach, the root of the carrot, or the stem of celery.
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An edible part of one of these plants.
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See Note at fruit
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of vegetable
1350–1400; Middle English (adjective) < Late Latin vegetābilis “able to live and grow,” equivalent to vegetā(re) “to quicken” ( see vegetate) + -bilis -ble
Explanation
A vegetable is an edible part of a plant, like a stalk of broccoli, a carrot, or a spinach leaf. With a few exceptions (think French fries), vegetables are just about the healthiest food you can eat. Culinary purists will tell you that some things you think of as vegetables, like tomatoes and zucchinis, aren't vegetables at all — they're fruits, because they have seeds. In general, though, it's fine to refer to the parts of plants used for food as vegetables. The word's original meaning was simply "any plant," and soon it came to mean "plant cultivated for food." Since 1921, it's also been slang for "person leading a monotonous, inactive life."
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.
As soon as he put on his glasses, Indian vegetable seller Tofan Jena knew daily life would never be the same.
From Barron's • May 27, 2026
I feel similarly evangelical about frozen vegetable sales.
From Salon • May 22, 2026
Created by the L.A.-based multimedia collective Everything Is Terrible, WoWoW is alternately described as a “cosmic entity” and a “cartoony, root vegetable floating alien god.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 20, 2026
For now, 80-year-old Molchaniuk from Tychyna Avenue is grateful that spring finally arrived and holds the promise of a new sowing season at her dacha’s vegetable patch.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 18, 2026
I read the sides of vegetable oil cans.
From "Lost Boy, Lost Girl" by John Bul Dau
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.
