tang

/tæŋ/

/tæŋ/

Other forms: tangs

A tang is a sharp flavor or smell, like the tang of fresh-squeezed lemonade or the tang of the salty ocean breeze.

When you eat something sour, you taste a tang, like the tang of blue cheese or vinegar in your salad. Although it's no longer available today, Tang was also the name of a tangy, sugary orange drink that was especially popular in the 1960s and 70s. From a root word meaning "to bite," tang's original meaning was "serpent's tongue."

Definitions of tang

1. noun

   a tart spicy quality
   synonyms: nip, piquance, piquancy, piquantness, tanginess, zest

   type of:

   spice, spicery, spiciness

   the property of being seasoned with spice and so highly flavored
2. noun

   the taste experience when a savory condiment is taken into the mouth
   synonyms: flavor, flavour, nip, relish, sapidity, savor, savour, smack

   types:

   lemon

   a distinctive tart flavor characteristic of lemons

   vanilla

   a distinctive fragrant flavor characteristic of vanilla beans

   type of:

   gustatory perception, gustatory sensation, taste, taste perception, taste sensation

   the sensation that results when taste buds in the tongue and throat convey information about the chemical composition of a soluble stimulus
3. noun

   a pungent and distinctive odor
   type of:

   aroma, odor, odour, olfactory property, scent, smell

   any property detected by the olfactory system
4. noun

   a suggestion of some quality
   type of:

   ghost, touch, trace

   a suggestion of some quality
5. noun

   any of various coarse seaweeds
   synonyms: sea tang

   type of:

   seaweed

   plant growing in the sea, especially marine algae
6. noun

   brown algae seaweed with serrated edges
   synonyms: Fucus serratus, serrated wrack

   type of:

   brown algae

   algae having the chlorophyll masked by brown and yellow pigments
7. noun

   any of various kelps especially of the genus Laminaria
   synonyms: sea tangle

   type of:

   kelp

   large brown seaweeds having fluted leathery fronds
8. noun

   a common rockweed used in preparing kelp and as manure
   synonyms: Fucus vesiculosus, black rockweed, bladder fucus, bladderwrack

   type of:

   rockweed

   coarse brown seaweed growing on rocks exposed at low tide