Flavour

How to spell flavour

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce flavour

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does flavour mean?

1. nounThe distinctive taste of a food or drink, or a characteristic quality something gives off.
2. verbTo give a particular taste to food or drink.

Flavour in a sentence

• noun

  The soup needed a stronger flavour so the chef added fresh herbs.

• verb

  A little vanilla will flavour the whole batch of biscuits.

• noun

  This brand of ice cream comes in every flavour you could want.

• verb

  They use smoked salt to flavour the roasted vegetables.

Where does flavour come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the 1300s from Old French flavor or flaor, which meant a 'smell' or 'odour' rather than a taste. That Old French form is thought to descend ultimately from Latin, possibly a blend of flatus, meaning 'a blowing' or 'breath', with the verb fragrare, 'to give off a sweet smell', which is the same root behind 'fragrant'. For its first few centuries in English the word kept this older sense of aroma, and only gradually shifted to mean the sensation of taste on the tongue, since smell and taste are so closely linked. The British spelling keeps the Old French ending -our, mirroring colour and favour, whereas American English trimmed it to -or; that surviving u is the whole spelling trap. Knowing the word once meant a scent carried on the breath makes the link between 'flavour' and 'fragrant' easier to remember.

How the word is built

• flavour (from Old French flaor: smell, scent)
• -our (British noun spelling of the suffix)

British and American spelling

Flavour is the British spelling. American English spells it flavor.