Meaning & use
lacto-ovo
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivebefore a nountechnical
Eating eggs and dairy products but no meat, fish, or poultry.
Grammar: Used before a noun and normally hyphenated; it does not stand alone as a predicate, so say 'a lacto-ovo diet', not 'my diet is lacto-ovo'.
Patterns
- lacto-ovo vegetarian
- lacto-ovo diet
- lacto-ovo vegetarianism
She follows a lacto-ovo diet, so she cooks with eggs and cheese but never with chicken or beef.
The restaurant marks each dish as vegan, lacto-ovo, or containing meat.
Many students who call themselves lacto-ovo vegetarians still eat fish now and then.
nouncountabletechnical
A person who eats eggs and dairy foods but avoids all meat and fish.
Grammar: Countable, so it takes an or an and a plural -s; it is a short way of saying 'lacto-ovo vegetarian'.
Patterns
- be a lacto-ovo
- lacto-ovos and vegans
At the dinner table there were two vegans, one lacto-ovo, and three people who ate everything.
The menu separates dishes for lacto-ovos from those for vegans.
Word forms
| plural | lacto-ovos |
|---|
Common combinations
- lacto-ovo vegetarian
- My brother has been a lacto-ovo vegetarian since he was sixteen.
- strictly lacto-ovo
- Their kitchen is strictly lacto-ovo, so no fish sauce is allowed.
- lacto-ovo diet
- A well-planned lacto-ovo diet can supply plenty of protein.
- lacto-ovo meal
- The airline offers a lacto-ovo meal if you order it in advance.
Synonyms and how they differ
- vegetarian
- Wider and vaguer: it may or may not include eggs and dairy, so use lacto-ovo when you need to be exact about those foods.
- ovo-vegetarian
- Eats eggs but avoids dairy as well as meat, so it is narrower than lacto-ovo.
- pescatarian
- Eats fish as well as eggs and dairy, which a lacto-ovo eater does not.
Opposites
Word family
- lacto- prefix
- Relating to milk, as in lactose or lacto-ovo.
- ovo- prefix
- Relating to eggs, as in ovo-vegetarian.
- vegetarian noun
- Someone who does not eat the flesh of animals.
- vegan noun
- Someone who avoids all animal products, including eggs and dairy.
Commonly confused: lacto-ovo or lactose? lacto-ovo or ovo-lacto?
lacto-ovo vs lactose
Lactose is the sugar found in milk, a chemical, not a way of eating. A lacto-ovo diet includes dairy, while lactose intolerance is a problem digesting it.
lacto-ovo vs ovo-lacto
The same idea with the two prefixes swapped; lacto-ovo is the far more common order in English.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'lacto-ovo' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Lacto-ovo' means eggs and dairy are eaten while meat is avoided, and it normally comes before a noun like 'diet'. Option 0 is wrong because lacto-ovo includes dairy, option 2 is wrong because chicken stock is meat, and option 3 is wrong because the word is not used after 'is' in this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lacto-ovo”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.