Savory or savoury?
savory is an adjective meaning “Tasty, attractive to the palate”; savoury is an adjective meaning “Alternative form of savory”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) savory is about 1.5 times as common as savoury.
What is the difference between savory and savoury?
| savory | savoury | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | USTasty, attractive to the palate USEither salty or spicy, but not sweet USA savory snack | AustraliaCanadaUKAlternative form of savory |
| Example | The fine restaurant presented an array of savory dishes; each was delicious | none recorded |
| Forms | savorier, savoriest | savourier, savouriest |
| Pronunciation | /ˈseɪ.və.ɹi/ /ˈseɪv.ɹi/ | not recorded |
| In writing | 1.0 times per million words | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: savory and savoury in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of savory and savoury
savory
- 1
USTasty, attractive to the palate
The fine restaurant presented an array of savory dishes; each was delicious
- 2
USA savory snack
- 3
USAny of several Mediterranean herbs, of the genus Satureja, grown as culinary flavourings
- 4
USEither salty or spicy, but not sweet
The mushrooms, meat, bread, rice, peanuts and potatoes were all good savory foods
- 5
USThe leaves of these plants used as a flavouring
- 6
USUmami
The savory rabbit soup contrasted well with the sweet cucumber sandwiches with jam
- 7
USMorally or ethically acceptable
Readers are to be warned that quotations in this chapter contain some not so savory language
savoury
- 1
AustraliaCanadaUKAlternative form of savory
- 2
AustraliaCanadaUKAlternative form of savory
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, savory or savoury?
savory appears 1.0 times per million words; savoury about once in every 2 million words.
savory 1.0 times per million wordssavoury about once in every 2 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search savory vs savoury?
“savory vs savoury” is searched about 30 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“savoury vs savory”, “savory or savoury”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.