dietary supplement

noun

|Updated on: 8 Jun 2018

Definition of dietary supplement

: 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

Recent Examples of dietary supplement from the Web

Along one wall, a woman in a ski hat is prepping samples of dietary supplements for one of Ellipse’s clients.

— bruce schoenfeld, WIRED, "Your Next Glass of Wine Might Be a Fake—and You'll Love It," 30 May 2018
Childhood obesity increases your kids' risk of chronic disease ► What about dietary supplements?

— bryant stamford, The Courier-Journal, "Is testosterone replacement therapy safe? Here's what you need to know," 24 May 2018
The Food and Drug Administration issued warnings Tuesday addressing dietary supplements that claim to protect the public from sun damage.

— fiza pirani, ajc, "Stay away from dangerous sunscreen pills, FDA warns," 23 May 2018
There are also no dietary supplements or lifestyle changes that have been shown to lower the risk of eye cancer or prevent it from coming back.

— amanda macmillan, Health.com, "What Is Ocular Melanoma? This Rare Eye Cancer Has Struck 36 Graduates of Auburn University," 1 May 2018
Dream Water products are marketed as dietary supplements to promote relaxation and enhance sleep.

— marcia heroux pounds, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Hollywood's Dream Water sells to Canadian cannabis company for nearly $30 million," 8 May 2018
There are more than 90,000 vitamin and dietary supplement products sold in the US.

— beth mole, Ars Technica, "Supplements are a $30 billion racket—here’s what experts actually recommend," 20 Feb. 2018
NSF International is a nonprofit organization that runs a testing program for dietary supplements.

— stacey colino, Woman's Day, "5 Ways to Discover the Perfect Vitamin for You," 4 Aug. 2015
According to the National Institutes of Health, more than half of all Americans take one or more dietary supplements daily or on occasion.

— trihealth, Cincinnati.com, "Top 5 questions to ask your primary care physician," 16 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dietary supplement.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of dietary supplement

1967

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

NEW! Time Traveler

Medical Dictionary

dietary supplement

noun

medical Definition of dietary supplement

: 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, 4 Oct. 2011

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, 2 Oct. 1996

… 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, 31 Aug. 1990