edible

 You can use the word "edible" as an adjective to describe anything that you can possibly eat, whether it tastes good or not:

• The berries from that bush are edible.
• The little crabapples from that tree are not edible. In fact, they’ll make you sick.
• Jerry thought the decorations on the cake were edible, but they turned out to be made of plastic.
• Amina made dinner for her entire family, but it was barely edible because it was overcooked.
• I find certain peppers to be so hot that they’re inedible. (Put the prefix "in" before "edible" to say that something can’t be eaten.)
• The edibility of certain vegetables is dependant on whether or not they are cooked. (The word "edibility" is a noun.)
• Big fish find smaller fish to be quite edible.

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This page was first published on September 7, 2012. It was updated on April 14, 2016.