vegetal

Borrowed from Late Latin vegetālis, from vegetō.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛd͡ʒɨtl̩/
• (General American) enPR: vĕjʹĭ-tl, IPA^(key): /ˈvɛd͡ʒɪ̈tl̩/
• Rhymes: -ɛdʒɪtəl
• Hyphenation UK: ve‧ge‧tal, US: veg‧e‧tal

vegetal (comparative more vegetal, superlative most vegetal)

1. (now rare, historical) Capable of growth and reproduction, but not feeling or reason (often opposed to sensible and rational). [from 15th c.]
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition III, section 2, member 1, subsection i:

     Which although it be denominated from men, and most evident in them, yet it extends and shows itself in vegetal and sensible creatures […].

2. Pertaining to vegetables or plants. [from 16th c.]
   • 1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 22:

     The landscape of vegetal life is weird—no forests, no meadows, no green hills, no foliage, but clublike stems of plants armed with stilettos.

   • 2018, Susan Orlean, The Library Book, Simon and Schusterl, page 241:

     The Computer Center is muffled and dim, warm with whiffs of sourness, of body odor, and of the vegetal smells of dirt embedded in clothes that were advancing in the direction of compost.

3. (wine) Having a grassy, herbaceous taste.

• vegetality
• vegetally
• vegetal parchment
• vegetal pole
• vegetaline

vegetal (plural vegetals)

1. (obsolete, chiefly botany) Any vegetable organism.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     This melancholy extends itself not to men only, but even to vegetals and sensibles.

• gavelet

Learned borrowing from Latin vegetālis.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [bə.ʒəˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [və.ʒəˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ve.d͡ʒeˈtal]

vegetal m or f (masculine and feminine plural vegetals)

1. (relational) plant, vegetable; vegetal

vegetal m (plural vegetals)

1. plant, vegetable

   Synonym: planta

• vegetalisme
• vegetalista

• “vegetal”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

vegetal (not comparable)

1. vegetal, vegetable

• IPA^(key): /ved͡ʒeˈtal/

vegetal m (plural vegetaj)

1. vegetable

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: ve‧ge‧tal

vegetal m (plural vegetais)

1. vegetable (edible material derived from a plant)

   Synonyms: verdura f, planta f, erva f, hortaliça f

2. (figuratively) vegetable (person whose body or brain has been damaged so that they cannot interact with the surrounding environment)

vegetal m or f (plural vegetais)

1. (relational) plant

   célula vegetal ― plant cell

Borrowed from French végétal.

• IPA^(key): /ve.d͡ʒeˈtal/

vegetal m or n (feminine singular vegetală, masculine plural vegetali, feminine and neuter plural vegetale)

1. vegetal, vegetable

• “vegetal”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025

• IPA^(key): /bexeˈtal/ [be.xeˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: ve‧ge‧tal

vegetal m or f (masculine and feminine plural vegetales)

1. vegetal

vegetal m (plural vegetales)

1. vegetable

   Synonym: verdura

• “vegetal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024