palatable

palatable, appetizing, savory, sapid, tasty, toothsome, flavorsome, relishing mean agreeable or pleasant to the taste.

Palatable is not emphatic in its implication of pleasantness; therefore it seldom suggests deliciousness and often, on the other hand, implies little more than acceptability

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provide palatable meals for her family

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the root, when properly cooked, was converted into a palatable and nutritious food— Pre scott

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The term is used frequently of things which are mentally digested

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the rebuke was not palatable

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I'm afraid that my remarks have not been very palatable, but I can assure you that they were sincerely meant— Mackenzie

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Appetizing implies a whetting of the appetite; it is applicable to the smell and appearance as well as to the taste of food

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the appetizing odor of a roasting turkey

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a convalescent requires appetizing meals

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In its extended use the word is applicable to things that stimulate a desire for more or an eagerness to go further

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an appetizing introduction to a subject

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the journalist with a nose for appetizing frontpage tidbits— Zirato

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Savory, also, is applied to foods that have an agreeable odor as well as taste, but it conveys definite implications of piquancy; it is therefore applied to highly seasoned dishes as contrasted with sweet or bland dishes

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a bland meat sometimes needs a savory sauce

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a savory stuffing for the turkey

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In extended use savory may suggest a pleasantly stimulating and agreeable quality

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engaging books . . . neither autobiography, nor fiction, nor essays, but a savory mixture of all three—TV. Y. Times

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but more often than not it is used in negative construction or with ironic implications

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the conquest of the West . . . is not among the more savory chapters in American history— Agnew

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Sapid is an uncommon and chiefly technical term that primarily applies to a substance able to stimulate taste receptors

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assuming that the sapid substance . . . initiates the electrical depolarization of the taste cell— Beidler

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In general use it may imply a marked taste or flavor

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a sapid dish

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or in extended use one that is distinctly keen or exhilarating

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a sapid and antiseptic quality of bright intelligence— Ellis

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Tasty implies a marked taste, but it suggests in addition an appetizing quality

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a tasty morsel

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a tasty cheese

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many trees, like the caju, which produce tasty fruits— P. E. James

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tasty ingredients for a good, breezy book— Barrett

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Toothsome heightens the implication of agreeableness in palatable and may add the suggestion of tenderness or of daintiness

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a toothsome dessert

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one of the most toothsome chicken dinners you'll ever munch— Gelston Hardy

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Flavorsome usually suggests richness rather than sharpness of taste, and often implies fragrance as well as savor

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flavorsome apricots

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incredibly flavorsome wild mushrooms from the forests— Davenport

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Relishing stresses gusto in enjoyment

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he found all this praise extremely relishing

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find ways in which the soldier's food could be made more relishing— Current Biog.

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Analogous words: *delightful, delicious, delectable, luscious: piquant, *pungent, spicy

Antonyms: unpalatable: distasteful