palatable

palatable — adjective

1. (of food or drink) tasting good enough to enjoy eating or drinking, even if it i

1.adjectiveC1
Definition

(of food or drink) tasting good enough to enjoy eating or drinking, even if it is not delicious — for example, a soup that is plain but still nice to swallow.

Example

Maya added a little salt and lemon to make the bland fish soup more palatable.

make + noun + more palatable

The hospital meals were dry and cold, but the rice pudding was at least palatable.

predicative use after 'be'

Common collocations
  • palatable meal
  • palatable dish
  • make food palatable
  • barely palatable
Synonyms
  • tasty

    more positive and informal; suggests genuinely enjoyable flavour

  • edible

    weaker — only means 'safe to eat', without saying it tastes good

  • appetizing

    stresses that the food looks or smells inviting before you taste it

Antonyms
  • unpalatable

    directly opposite — tasting bad enough that eating it is unpleasant

  • inedible

    stronger — cannot be eaten at all, not just unpleasant

Usage Note

Often used to describe food that is acceptable rather than truly delicious; chefs and food writers prefer 'tasty' or 'delicious' for genuine praise. Frequently appears in the pattern 'make something (more) palatable'.

Common Mistakes

The cake was so palatable I ate three slices.
The cake was so delicious I ate three slices.
'palatable' suggests merely acceptable, not exciting; use 'delicious' or 'tasty' for strong praise.

2. (of an idea, plan, or fact) easy enough for people to agree to or live with, eve

2.adjectiveC1
Definition

(of an idea, plan, or fact) easy enough for people to agree to or live with, even when it is not what they really want — for example, a tax rise softened by extra services.

Example

The mayor reworded the policy to make it more palatable to local business owners.

make + noun + more palatable to + somebody

Sharing an office with strangers was not a palatable idea for Lina.

predicative + 'idea' as subject complement

Common collocations
  • palatable to voters
  • politically palatable
  • make a decision palatable
  • more palatable option
Synonyms
  • acceptable

    broader and more neutral; 'palatable' adds the sense of being made easier to swallow

  • agreeable

    more positive — suggests people actively like it, not just tolerate it

  • tolerable

    weaker — only means 'just bearable', without the softening effort

Antonyms
  • unpalatable

    hard to accept — used of unwelcome news, truths, or decisions

  • unacceptable

    stronger — cannot be agreed to at all

Grammar Patterns

palatable + to + somebody

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: this sense never applies to food or drink. Subject is typically an idea, plan, news, or proposal. Often follows the pattern 'make X (more) palatable to Y', where Y is the person or group being persuaded.

Common Mistakes

The new rule is palatable for the workers.
The new rule is palatable to the workers.
use the preposition 'to', not 'for', when naming the people who accept it.

Word family

  • palate
    nounC2
  • palatably
    adverbC2
  • unpalatable
    adjectiveC1
  • palatability
    nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

These five words sit on a scale of how good food tastes. 'Edible' is the lowest bar — it only means the food is safe to put in your mouth, with no comment on flavour. 'Palatable' is one step up: the food has enough taste that you can eat it without complaint, but it stops short of real praise. 'Tasty' is warmer and more everyday — it says the flavour is genuinely enjoyable. 'Appetizing' shifts the focus to how the food looks or smells before you eat it, often used in menus and food writing. 'Delicious' sits at the top, reserved for food that is truly excellent. So a hospital sandwich might be edible or palatable; a home-cooked stew is tasty; a restaurant dessert is delicious.

palatable ↗tasty ↗edible ↗appetizingdelicious ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • make something palatable
  • in a palatable form
  • more palatable to voters

Prepositions

  • to (somebody)

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Built in late-1600s English from 'palate' — the roof of the mouth, long thought to be the seat of taste — plus the suffix '-able', meaning 'fit for'. So a palatable thing was first 'fit for the palate', i.e. nice to taste. The figurative sense of 'easy to accept' (a plan, idea, or piece of news) grew naturally from this food image during the 1700s, treating the mind as a kind of inner palate that finds some ideas hard to swallow.