Meaning & use
diet
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Meanings
nouncountable
The food and drink that a person or animal normally eats and drinks.
Grammar: Countable when talking about a type of eating pattern: a healthy diet, a vegetarian diet. Uncountable in some fixed phrases like 'a change in diet'.
Patterns
- a healthy/unbalanced/poor diet
- a diet of something
- live on a diet of something
- change your diet
A balanced diet should include plenty of vegetables and whole grains.
The doctor asked him about his diet and how much exercise he gets.
Animals in the wild have a very different diet from pets.
nouncountable
A limited eating plan followed to lose weight or for medical reasons.
Grammar: Often used with 'on': be on a diet, go on a diet.
Patterns
- be on a diet
- go on a diet
- start a diet
- a strict diet
She's been on a diet since January and has lost five kilos.
He started a low-salt diet after his heart problems.
I can't eat cake — I'm on a diet.
verbintransitive
To eat less food or only particular foods, usually to lose weight.
Grammar: No object: you diet, or diet to lose weight. Don't say 'diet food' when you mean 'diet' as a verb.
Patterns
- diet to lose weight
- be dieting
- diet for a while
She's been dieting for months but finds it hard to keep going.
He diets every spring before the summer holidays.
You don't need to diet — just eat more sensibly.
Word forms
| plural | diets |
|---|---|
| third person singular | diets |
| past tense | dieted |
| past participle | dieted |
| -ing form | dieting |
Common combinations
- a balanced diet
- Children need a balanced diet to grow properly.
- go on a diet
- She decided to go on a diet before the wedding.
- a diet of something
- The prisoners survived on a diet of bread and water.
- a strict diet
- Athletes often follow a strict diet during training.
- diet and exercise
- Losing weight usually requires changes in diet and exercise.
Synonyms and how they differ
- nutrition
- Nutrition is the science or process of getting the right food, not the actual food you eat; use 'diet' for the food itself.
- eating habits
- This phrase is more general and less countable than 'diet'; it describes how and when you eat rather than what you eat.
- fast
- A fast means going without food completely for a period, which is more extreme than a diet.
Word family
- dieter noun
- A person who is trying to lose weight by eating less.
- dietary adjective
- Relating to what you eat, as in 'dietary needs'.
- dietician noun
- An expert in food and nutrition who advises on diets.
Commonly confused: diet or dietitian?
diet vs dietitian
A dietitian is a professional who plans diets for health; 'diet' is the food plan itself.
Practice
The doctor told him to go ___ a diet and cut down on sugar.
Choose one answer.
'Go on a diet' is the fixed phrase meaning to start eating less. The other prepositions do not combine with 'go' and 'diet' in this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “diet”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.