Alternative forms

• vegitable (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#VEGETABLECategory:English terms derived from Middle English#VEGETABLE vegetable, from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#VEGETABLE vegetable, from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#VEGETABLE vegetābilis (“able to live and grow”), derived from vegetāre (“to enliven”). Displaced Old English wyrt and ofett, whence modern wort and ovest.

Related to vigil, vigour, vajra, and waker.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛd͡ʒ.tə.bəl/, [ˈvɛd͡ʒ.tə.bɫ̩], /ˈvɛd͡ʒ.ə.tə.bəl/Category:English 3-syllable words#VEGETABLECategory:English 4-syllable words#VEGETABLECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#VEGETABLE

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#VEGETABLE

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#VEGETABLE
• (US, Canada, dialectal) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛt͡ʃ.tə.bəl/Category:English 3-syllable words#VEGETABLECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#VEGETABLE
• (North India) IPA^(key): /ˌvɛdʒɪˈʈebəl/Category:English 4-syllable words#VEGETABLECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#VEGETABLE
• (South India) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛdʒɪʈəbɪl/Category:English 4-syllable words#VEGETABLECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#VEGETABLE
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈved͡ʒ.tə.bəl/, [ˈved͡ʒ.tə.bɫ̩]Category:English 3-syllable words#VEGETABLECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#VEGETABLE

Noun

vegetable (plural vegetables)Category:English lemmas#VEGETABLECategory:English nouns#VEGETABLECategory:English countable nouns#VEGETABLECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#VEGETABLECategory:Pages with entries#VEGETABLECategory:Pages with 2 entries#VEGETABLE

1. Any plant.
   • 1837, The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, volume 23, page 222:

     That he might ascertain whether any of the cloths of ancient Egypt were made of hemp, M. Dutrochet has examined with the microscope the weavable filaments of this last vegetable.

     Category:English terms with quotations#VEGETABLE

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     The first of the tall trees was reached, and by the bearings proved the wrong one. So with the second. The third rose nearly two hundred feet into the air above a clump of underwood — a giant of a vegetable, with a red column as big as a cottage, and a wide shadow around in which a company could have manoeuvred.

     Category:English terms with quotations#VEGETABLE

2. A plant raised for some edible part of it, such as the leaves, roots, fruit or flowers, but excluding any plant considered to be a fruit, grain, herb, or spice in the culinary sense.

   Synonyms: (informal) veg, (informal) veggie

3. The edible part of such a plant.

   Synonyms: (informal) veg, (informal) veggie

4. (figuratively, derogatoryCategory:English derogatory terms#VEGETABLE) A person whose brain (or, infrequently, whose body) has been damaged to the point that they cannot interact with the surrounding environment; a person in a persistent vegetative state.

   Synonym: cabbage

5. (RAF, slangCategory:English slang#VEGETABLE, historicalCategory:English terms with historical senses#VEGETABLE) A mine (explosive device).

Adjective

vegetable (not comparable)Category:English lemmas#VEGETABLECategory:English adjectives#VEGETABLECategory:English uncomparable adjectives#VEGETABLECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#VEGETABLECategory:Pages with entries#VEGETABLECategory:Pages with 2 entries#VEGETABLE

1. Of or relating to plants.

   This substance is vegetable not mineral.Category:English terms with usage examples#VEGETABLE

   • 1882, Thomas Hardy, chapter I, in Two on a Tower. A Romance. [...] In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 1:

     On an early winter afternoon, clear but not cold, when the vegetable world was a weird multitude of skeletons through whose ribs the sun shone freely, a gleaming landau came to a pause on the crest of a hill in Wessex.

     Category:English terms with quotations#VEGETABLE

2. Of or relating to vegetables.

Further reading

• vegetable on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• vegetable (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Noun

vegetable m (plural vegetables)Category:Spanish lemmas#VEGETABLECategory:Spanish nouns#VEGETABLECategory:Spanish countable nouns#VEGETABLECategory:Spanish entries with incorrect language header#VEGETABLECategory:Spanish masculine nouns#VEGETABLECategory:Pages with entries#VEGETABLECategory:Pages with 2 entries#VEGETABLE

1. (USCategory:United States Spanish#VEGETABLE) vegetable

Adjective

vegetable m or f (masculine and feminine plural vegetables)Category:Spanish lemmas#VEGETABLECategory:Spanish adjectives#VEGETABLECategory:Spanish epicene adjectives#VEGETABLECategory:Spanish entries with incorrect language header#VEGETABLECategory:Pages with entries#VEGETABLECategory:Pages with 2 entries#VEGETABLE

1. (uncommonCategory:Spanish terms with uncommon senses#VEGETABLE) vegetable

Further reading

• “vegetable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense