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vegetable

[ vej-tuh-buhl, vej-i-tuh- ]
/ ˈvɛdʒ tə bəl, ˈvɛdʒ ɪ tə- /
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See synonyms for: vegetable / vegetables on Thesaurus.com

noun
adjective

VIDEO FOR VEGETABLE

Are These Foods Fruits, Vegetables, Or Berries?

How can we know what is a fruit? A vegetable? A berry? A nut? Doesn't it seem like it's always changing? Why is it so confusing?

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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

OTHER WORDS FROM vegetable

non·veg·e·ta·ble, noun, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use vegetable in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for vegetable

vegetable
/ (ˈvɛdʒtəbəl) /

noun
any of various herbaceous plants having parts that are used as food, such as peas, beans, cabbage, potatoes, cauliflower, and onions
informal a person who has lost control of his mental faculties, limbs, etc, as from an injury, mental disease, etc
  1. a dull inactive person
  2. (as modifier)a vegetable life
(modifier) consisting of or made from edible vegetablesa vegetable diet
(modifier) of, relating to, characteristic of, derived from, or consisting of plants or plant materialvegetable oils
rare any member of the plant kingdom

Word Origin for vegetable

c14 (adj): from Late Latin vegetābilis animating, from vegetāre to enliven, from Latin vegēre to excite
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for vegetable

vegetable
[ vĕjtə-bəl ]

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.
An edible part of one of these plants. See Note at fruit.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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