In culinary terms, a vegetable is an edible plant or its part, intended for cooking or eating raw.

The non-biological definition of a vegetable is largely based on culinary and cultural tradition. Apart from vegetables, other main types of plant food are fruits, grains and nuts. Vegetables are most often consumed as salads or cooked in savory or salty dishes, while culinary fruits are usually sweet and used for desserts, but it is not the universal rule. Therefore, the division is somewhat arbitrary, based on cultural views. For example, some people consider mushrooms to be vegetables even though they are not biologically plants, while others consider them a separate food category; some cultures group potatoes with cereal products such as noodles or rice, while most English speakers would consider them vegetables.

In 1767, the meaning of the term "vegetable" was specified to mean "plant cultivated for food, edible herb or root." The year 1955 noted the first use of the shortened, slang term "veggie." As an adjective, the word vegetable is used in scientific and technical contexts with a different and much broader meaning, namely of "related to plants" in general, edible or not -as in vegetable matter, vegetable kingdom, vegetable origin, etc. The meaning of "vegetable" as "plant grown for food" was not established until the 18th century.

There are at least four definitions relating to fruits and vegetables:

Fruit (botany): the ovary of a flowering plant (sometimes including accessory structures),
Fruit (culinary): any edible part of a plant with a sweet flavor,
Vegetable (culinary): any edible part of a plant with a savory flavor.
Vegetable (legal): commodities that are taxed as vegetables in a particular jurisdiction