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flavor

 - 7 dictionary results

fla⋅vor

  [fley-ver]
Use flavor in a Sentence
–noun
1. taste, esp. the distinctive taste of something as it is experienced in the mouth.
2. a substance or extract that provides a particular taste; flavoring.
3. the characteristic quality of a thing: He captured the flavor of the experience in his book.
4. a particular quality noticeable in a thing: language with a strong nautical flavor.
5. Physics. any of the six labels given to the distinct kinds of quark: up, down, strange, charm, bottom, and top.
6. Archaic. smell, odor, or aroma.
–verb (used with object)
7. to give flavor to (something).
Also, especially British, flavour.

Origin:
1300–50; ME < MF fla(o)ur < LL *flātor stench, breath, alter. of L flātus a blowing, breathing, (see flatus ), perh. with -or of fētor fetor

Related forms:
fla⋅vor⋅less, adjective

Synonyms:
1. See taste. 2. seasoning. 3. essence, spirit.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To flavor
fla·vor   (flā'vər)   
n.  

  1. Distinctive taste; savor: a flavor of smoke in bacon. See Synonyms at taste.

  2. A distinctive yet intangible quality felt to be characteristic of a given thing: "What matters in literature . . . is surely the idiosyncratic, the individual, the flavor or color of a particular human suffering" (Harold Bloom).

  3. A flavoring: contains no artificial flavors.

  4. Physics Any of six classifications of quark varieties (up, down, strange, charm, top, and bottom), distinguished by mass and electric charge.

  5. Archaic Aroma; fragrance.

tr.v.   fla·vored, fla·vor·ing, fla·vors
To give flavor to.

[Middle English flavour, aroma, from Old French flaor, from Vulgar Latin *flātor, from Latin flāre, to blow; see bhlē- in Indo-European roots.]
fla'vor·er n., fla'vor·less adj., fla'vor·ous (-əs), fla'vor·some (-səm) adj., fla'vor·y adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

flavor 
c.1300, "a smell, odor," from O.Fr. flaour "smell, odor," from V.L. flator "odor," lit. "that which blows," from L. flator "blower," from flare "to blow, puff," which is cognate with O.E. blawan (see blow (v.1)). The same V.L. source produced O.It. fiatore "a bad odor." Sense of "taste, savor" is 1697, originally "the element in taste which depends on the sense of smell." The -v- is perhaps from infl. of savor.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: 1fla·vor
Variant: or chiefly British fla·vour /'flA-v&r/
Function: noun
1 a : the qualityof something that affects the sense of taste flavor to food> b : the blend of taste and smell sensations evoked by a substance in the mouth flavor of ripe fruit>
2 : a substance that flavors —fla·vored or chiefly British fla·voured /-v&rd/ adjective

Main Entry: 2flavor
Variant: or chiefly British fla·vour
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Forms: fla·vored or chieflyBritish fla·voured; fla·vor·ing or chiefly British fla·vour·ing /'flAv-(&-)ri[ng]/
: to give or addflavor to
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Computing Dictionary

flavor spelling
US spelling of "flavour".
[The Jargon File]
(1997-03-18)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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Encyclopedia

flavor

in particle physics, property that distinguishes different members in the two groups of basic building blocks of matter, the quarks and the leptons. There are six flavours of subatomic particle within each of these two groups: six leptons (the electron, the muon, the tau, the electron-neutrino, the muon-neutrino, and the tau-neutrino), and six quarks (designated up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom).

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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