palatable

[ pal-uh-tuh-buhl ]

adjective

1. acceptable or agreeable to the palate or taste; savory:

   palatable food.

   Synonyms: delectable, delicious

   Antonyms: distasteful, tasteless, unsavory, unpalatable

2. acceptable or agreeable to the mind or feelings:

   palatable ideas.

   Synonyms: satisfactory, pleasing

palatable

/ ˈpælətəbəl /

adjective

1. pleasant to taste
2. acceptable or satisfactory

   a palatable suggestion

Derived Forms

• ˌpalataˈbility, noun
• ˈpalatably, adverb

Other Words From

• pal·at·a·bil·i·ty [pal-, uh, -t, uh, -, bil, -i-tee], pal·at·a·ble·ness noun
• pal·at·a·bly adverb
• non·pal·at·a·ble adjective
• non·pal·at·a·bly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of palatable¹

First recorded in 1660–70; palate + -able

Synonym Study

Palatable, appetizing, tasty, savory all refer to tastes or aromas pleasing to the palate and in some cases to the olfactory nerves. Palatable has the least positive connotation of these terms, often referring to food that is merely acceptable and not especially good: a palatable, if undistinguished, main course; a barely palatable mixture of overcooked vegetables. Appetizing suggests stimulation of the appetite by the smell, taste of food, and is the only one of these words that can also refer to food pleasing to the eye: the appetizing aroma of baking bread; the table contained an appetizing display of meats, cheeses, and salads. Tasty refers to food that has a notable or especially appealing taste: mixed with bits of a tasty sausage; an especially tasty sauce. Savory refers most often to well or highly seasoned foods and applies to their appeal in both taste and smell: a savory, succulent roast of beef, spiced with slivers of garlic; the savory aroma of a simmering duck sauce.

Example Sentences

Today easier, more palatable treatment taken once per day costs a few rands.

From No Straight News

So just the fact that these beverages are more palatable for some people than water might encourage people to drink more.

From Popular-Science

This is a good time to start building processes and templates that make your culture more palatable and scalable.

From Search Engine Land

It’s the one we need to make the rest of this decade a palatable, even euphoric experience.

From Singularity Hub 

So to make the purchase more palatable, companies like Sunrun and Vivint began to offer various kinds of leases.

From Quartz

The Muslim populace who love and support you will never find palatable...the scenes of slaughtering the hostages.

From The Daily Beast

Cummings, however, has proven far more controversial and arguably less palatable than her contemporaries.

From The Daily Beast

The former made the latter more palatable; the latter made the former more memorable.

From The Daily Beast

“Nonconsensual sex” is a much more palatable and less loaded term, and it has been adopted by many universities.

From The Daily Beast

He added, “A five-year sentence sounded a little more palatable than 200, so I accepted.”

From The Daily Beast

There is an art in making palatable flapjacks out of nothing but flour and water.

From Project Gutenberg

Five or six species of small animals were named hares, or rabbits, merely because their flesh was palatable food.

From Project Gutenberg

Though they live only on prey, and drink blood more often than water, yet it is said their flesh is very palatable.

From Project Gutenberg

Cooked in the ashes, it makes a palatable but tough cake, which we enjoyed after our long abstinence from bread.

From Project Gutenberg

Strabo speaks of very large bats in Mesopotamia, whose flesh was palatable.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• acceptable
• agreeable
• appetizing
• attractive
• delicious
• enjoyable
• pleasant
• satisfactory
• tempting