dietary supplement

noun

: a product taken orally that contains one or more ingredients (such as vitamins or amino acids) that are intended to supplement one's diet and are not considered food

Examples of dietary supplement in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Mixing grapefruit, whether as a juice or in a dietary supplement, with some medications can disrupt how the drugs are processed in your body, potentially causing dangerous side effects or loss of effectiveness. —Ross Phan, Verywell Health, 9 Feb. 2026

Iron Iron is a mineral found in food products and as a dietary supplement. —Kirstyn Hill, Health, 5 Feb. 2026

As with any dietary supplement, individual results and the speed of said results vary here. —Stacia Datskovska, Footwear News, 3 Feb. 2026

The recall was initially only issued for a dietary supplement powder by the brand Live It Up, but the FDA added capsules from the brand Why Not Natural last week. —Maia Pandey, jsonline.com, 3 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1891, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

dietary supplement

noun

: a product taken orally that contains one or more ingredients (such as vitamins, minerals, herbs, or amino acids) that are intended to supplement one's diet and are not considered food

The study is looking at whether taking daily dietary supplements of vitamin D₃ or omega-3 fatty acids reduces the risk for developing cancer, heart disease and stroke.

—Mary Brophy Marcus, USA Today

A hormone produced by the pineal gland in the brain, melatonin also occurs naturally in some foods. It therefore may be sold as a dietary supplement in the United States under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, without premarket approval from the FDA.

—Lynne Lamberg, The Journal of the American Medical Association

… batches of a dietary supplement L-tryptophan that have been implicated in a mysterious disease were produced by a genetically engineered organism.

—Leslie Roberts, Science