gustation

1 9.9

A sense that lets you taste and tell different flavors like sweet or bitter

noun
/ɡʌˈsteɪʃən/

Specialized

: gustación

The chef emphasized that gustation involves not just taste but also aromas that contribute to the overall flavor experience.

Examples

I generally refrain from speech during gustation.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
OK, OK, Based on what you think you know about gustation, Pace your wagers.
During the wine tasting event, participants enjoyed refining their gustation skills by identifying various flavors in each sample.
To enhance your gustation, try pairing different foods to see how the flavors interact with one another.

Synonyms

taste

vsgustation

420 1.0

A sense in the mouth that notices flavors like sweet and bitter

is the more clinical or technical expression for that same ability

palate

vsgustation

35 4.0

A person's ability to taste and enjoy different foods

refers specifically to the basic sensing faculty rather than the organ or flavor liking

sense of taste

vsgustation

3 2.7

Ability to notice sweet, sour, bitter and salty flavors in your mouth

expresses the same idea but sounds more formal and scientific

gustatory modality

vsgustation

Specialized

9.2

The ability to notice and name tastes like sweet, sour, bitter, and salty

is the technical label for the same faculty rather than common speech

taste perception

vsgustation

Specialized

3.9

Ability to notice and understand flavors in the mouth from food and drink

focuses on the faculty itself rather than the physiological detection process

Antonyms

anesthesia

Specialized

76 4.5

Treatment that makes part or all of the body stop feeling pain, sometimes making you sleep

Surface Forms

gustation singular

gustations plural

Morphology

gustation = gustate (opaque) = gust + ation

Derived from the rare verb 'gustate' + the noun-forming suffix '-ation', and the verb and combining form are unfamiliar to most learners, so the formation is not transparently deducible.

Etymology

The word gustation comes from the Latin gustare, 'to taste', and has the same root as English words like gusto ('enjoyment of taste') and disgust ('a strong bad taste'). So, gustation means the sense of tasting, the ability to tell different flavors.