taste bud

IPA/ˈteɪst bʌd/
IPA/ˈteɪst bʌd/

taste bud — noun

1. A taste bud is one of the tiny clusters of sensory cells on your tongue that tel

1.名詞B1
釋義

A taste bud is one of the tiny clusters of sensory cells on your tongue that tell you if the food or drink you put in your mouth is sweet, sour, salty, bitter, or savoury.

例句

Nila burned her tongue on hot soup, so her taste buds could not detect flavour for two days.

collocation: taste buds + detect + flavour

Yumi has sensitive taste buds and can tell if a dish contains even a tiny amount of garlic.

同義詞
  • taste receptor

    a more scientific term referring to the protein molecules on taste bud cells that detect specific flavours

  • gustatory receptor

    used mainly in biology textbooks and medical contexts

文法句型

taste buds + verb (e.g. detect, respond to)

adjective + taste buds (e.g. sensitive, damaged)

用法筆記

Taste buds are almost always referred to in the plural because the surface of the tongue contains thousands of them. Saying 'one taste bud' is grammatically correct but rare in everyday conversation — people usually talk about their taste buds as a group.

常見錯誤

❌I burned my taste bud.
✅I burned my taste buds.
💡taste buds are almost always plural because the tongue has thousands of them.
❌Spicy food kills your taste buds.
✅Spicy food does not kill your taste buds
💡the burning feeling is temporary.' — a common myth; the heat is a pain response, not tissue damage.