flavoring

Pluralflavorings

1. 1
   taste ingredientnouncountable or uncountable

   Something that gives food or drink its taste, usually an added ingredient.

   Manufacturers often use artificial flavoring to mimic the taste of real strawberries.

   A few drops of almond flavoring transformed the plain frosting.

   Similarseasoning, essence, extract, additive

   Note

   The ingredient can be counted or treated as a mass. As a substance it usually goes without an article (artificial flavoring, a little almond flavoring). As one product it takes a and a plural (a soda with an artificial flavoring, the flavorings in a recipe). The spelling without a u is the American one. A noun phrase like an artificial flavoring names the ingredient, while the verb form names the act.

2. 2
   adding tasteverb

   Present participle and gerund of flavor.

   The brewery is flavoring its new ale with orange peel.

   Flavoring the broth slowly lets the spices fully infuse.

   Note

   Here the word still works as a verb. Because flavor is transitive, it takes a direct object and an adverb, as in flavoring the broth slowly. That is how to tell it apart from the noun for the ingredient, which takes articles and adjectives instead (an artificial flavoring). The two forms overlap in one place: the noun flavor can itself mean the added substance, so flavor and flavoring can sometimes swap.

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