What does tasted mean?
Tasted is the past tense and past participle of the verb taste, meaning to experience the flavour of something by taking a small amount into the mouth. It can describe sampling a new food or drink, as in "I tasted the cheese", or functioning as a linking verb to describe a flavour, as in "the wine tasted sweet". The word also has a figurative use meaning to experience or encounter something, often briefly: a person may taste freedom, danger, or the bitterness of defeat. In everyday language, tasted is usually direct and neutral, while phrases such as "tasted of" have a more literary or atmospheric quality. Its past-participle form is especially common in perfect constructions: "She had never tasted such delicious food".
verbTasted is the past tense and past participle of taste. It means to have taken food, drink, or another substance into the mouth to experience its flavour, and figuratively to have briefly experienced or tried something.
- To perceive the flavour of food, drink, or another substance by taking some into the mouth; in linking constructions, to have a particular flavour.
- To sample or try food, drink, or an unfamiliar substance.
- To experience or encounter something briefly, especially an emotion, sensation, quality, or situation.
"She tasted the sauce and adjusted the seasoning."
"He tasted the soup and decided that it needed more salt."
"The morning tasted of rain and damp earth."
Tasted can describe a spoonful of sauce, a sip of wine, or the bitter aftertaste of defeat: the word turns a simple sensory experience into a whole encounter.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does tasted come from?
The English verb comes through Old French taster, ultimately from Latin gustare, a verb associated with gustus, meaning "taste". The past form tasted developed as a regular inflection of that verb. Related English and Latin forms include taste, tasty, distaste, and gustatory, all belonging to the same root family.
Related word forms
How tasted is actually used
As a past participle, tasted follows have, as in "have tasted". As a simple past tense, it stands alone, as in "I tasted it". The phrase "tasted of" is literary or poetic and often suggests a distinctive quality or atmosphere.
Easily confused with tasted
Taste is the base verb and also a noun meaning flavour or the ability to perceive flavour, whereas tasted is its past tense and past participle.
Tasty is an adjective describing food that has a pleasant flavour, while tasted is a verb form describing the act of experiencing or sampling something.