Gustatory means relating to the sense of taste. Your gustatory system includes your tongue, taste buds, and the parts of your brain that process flavors. When you bite into a lemon and pucker up, or savor a piece of chocolate cake, you're having a gustatory experience.

Scientists identify five basic gustatory sensations: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (a savory taste found in foods like mushrooms and cheese). Your tongue has thousands of tiny taste buds that detect these flavors and send signals to your brain.

You might encounter this word when reading about cooking, biology, or the science of how we experience food. A chef might talk about the gustatory pleasures of a perfectly seasoned dish, while a scientist might study gustatory perception to understand why different people taste things differently. Some people, called “supertasters,” have extra taste buds and experience gustatory sensations more intensely than others.

While we often say something “tastes good,” what we really mean involves both gustatory sensations on our tongue and smells detected by our nose working together to create the full flavor experience.