調味料
Meaning in Englishcondiment, seasoning
Animated kanji stroke order
Related sentences
Related sentences
There are no published items in this section yet.
Word context
What it means
What does 調味料 mean? It denotes the ingredients used to season or flavor food, typically added during cooking or at the table, including basic salts as well as sauces, sugars, vinegars, and other flavor-enhancing products.
Main meanings
- categorizes ingredients that modify flavor in cooking and serving
- includes salt, sauces, spice blends, and flavor enhancers used across cuisines
- in recipes or menus, 調味料 marks the section or list of seasonings rather than the act of seasoning itself
How to use it
Used in cooking contexts, both formal and everyday. In recipes, 調味料 refers to ingredients added for flavor; in grocery stores it's a category label; in culinary writing it describes agents that modify taste.
Variants and close terms
- 香辛料 (koushinryou): spices and aromatic seasonings
- 味付け (ajitsuke): the act of seasoning or flavoring
- だし (dashi): a common seasoning base in Japanese cooking
- 味料 (miryou): flavoring agents, less common but related
Composition
- 調: to adjust, regulate, or tune; here it implies balancing the flavor
- 味: taste, flavor
- 料: material, ingredients used to produce something; here, flavoring agents
Etymology
調 (on'yomi chō) + 味 (on'yomi mi) + 料 (on'yomi ryō) forms a native Japanese compound read as chōmiryō. The structure joins the ideas of adjusting flavor and the materials that impart taste; it is not a loanword, and its pronunciation follows standard kanji readings.
Word class
noun (名詞)