Sauce is a flavorful liquid or semi-liquid mixture served with food to add moisture, richness, or taste. When you dip chicken nuggets in ketchup or pour gravy over mashed potatoes, you're using a sauce. Spaghetti tastes plain without marinara sauce, and pancakes seem dry without maple syrup (which is technically a sauce too).

Sauces come in countless varieties across different cuisines. French cooking is famous for its complex sauces like béchamel and hollandaise. Asian cooking uses soy sauce, teriyaki, and sweet and sour sauce. Mexican food features salsa, which literally means “sauce” in Spanish. Some sauces are smooth and creamy, others are chunky with vegetables or spices.

The word also appears in casual slang. When someone says a person has sauce, they mean the person has style, confidence, or swagger. If you show up to school with a cool new haircut and a confident attitude, a friend might say you've got sauce. But this usage is quite informal and feels different from the cooking meaning, even though both suggest adding something special that makes things better.