What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Food vs Subsistence - What's the difference?

food | subsistence | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between food and subsistence

is that food is any substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life while subsistence is real being; existence.

food

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • (uncountable) Any substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
      Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= A punch in the gut , passage=Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.}}
  • (countable) A foodstuff.
  • (uncountable, figuratively) Anything that nourishes or sustains.
  • Mozart and Bach are food for my soul.
  • * (and other bibiographic particulars) (William Shakespeare)
  • This may prove food to my displeasure.
  • * (and other bibiographic particulars) (William Wordsworth)
  • In this moment there is life and food / For future years.

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "food": raw, cooked, baked, fried, grilled, processed, healthy, unhealthy, wholesome, nutritious, safe, toxic, tainted, adulterated, tasty, delicious, fresh, stale, sweet, sour, spicy, exotic, marine.

    Synonyms

    * (substance consumed by living organisms) bellytimber, chow (slang), comestible (formal), eats (slang), feed (for domesticated animals), fodder (for domesticated animals), foodstuffs, nosh (slang), nourishment, sustenance, victuals * (anything intended to supply energy or nourishment of an entity or idea) brainfood * (foodstuff) bellytimber, foodstuff

    Derived terms

    * cat food * comfort food * dog food * fast food * food bank * food chain * food fight * food for thought * food pyramid * food stamp * foodstuff * foody * health food * junk food * rabbit food * seafood * soul food * whole food

    See also

    * breakfast * brunch * dinner * dunch * lunch, luncheon * meal * supper *

    Statistics

    *

    subsistence

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Real being; existence.
  • Inherency; as, the subsistence of qualities in bodies.
  • Means of support; provisions, or that which produces provisions; livelihood; That which furnishes support to animal life; as, a meager subsistence.
  • *
  • (theology) A person, specifically the person of Christ or of another part of the Trinity; hypostasis.
  • Synonyms

    * sustenance * (theology) hypostasis