Spice vs Aromatic - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between spice and aromatic

is that spice is plant matter (usually dried) used to season or flavour food while aromatic is a fragrant plant or spice added to a dish to flavour it.

As a verb spice

is to add spice or spices to.

As an adjective aromatic is

fragrant or spicy.

spice

English

(wikipedia spice)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) espice (modern .

Noun

(countable, uncountable) Plant matter (usually dried) used to season or flavour food.

(figurative, uncountable) Appeal, interest; an attribute that makes something appealing, interesting, or engaging.

(uncountable, Yorkshire) Sweets, candy.

(obsolete) Species; kind.

* Wyclif Bible, 1 Thessalonians v. 22

Abstain you from all evil spice .

* Sir T. Elyot

Justice, although it be but one entire virtue, yet is described in two kinds of spices . The one is named justice distributive, the other is called commutative.

Hyponyms

* See also

Hypernyms

* seasoning

Coordinate terms

* herb

Derived terms

* allspice * five-spice powder * herbs and spices * spiceberry * spicebush * spicery * spice up * spiciness * spicy * spicy tooth * variety is the spice of life

Verb

(spic)

To add spice or spices to.

Derived terms

* spice up

Etymology 2

Formed by analogy with (mice) as the plural of (mouse) by .

Noun

(head)

(nonce word)

References

Anagrams

* English irregular plurals ----

aromatic

English

Alternative forms

* aromatick (obsolete) * aromatique (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)

Fragrant or spicy.

(organic chemistry) Having a closed ring of alternate single and double bonds with delocalized electrons.

(organic chemistry) derived from benzene.

Usage notes

* Not to be confused with aromantic.

Antonyms

* (organic chemistry) aliphatic

Noun

(en noun)

A fragrant plant or spice added to a dish to flavour it.