flexitarian

noun

flex·​i·​tar·​i·​an ˌflek-sə-ˈter-ē-ən 

: one whose normally meatless diet occasionally includes meat or fish

flexitarian adjective

Did you know?

The Difference Between Vegetarian, Vegan, and Other Diets

The word vegetarian sprouted up in 1839. Fruitarian ("a person who lives on fruit") ripened by 1893. In 1944, vegetarians who consume no animal or dairy products began calling themselves vegans. Then, in 1993, those who eat fish but no other meat chose pesce, the Italian word for "fish," to create the designation pescatarian. In that same year, meatatarian was served up as a word for those whose diet largely includes meat; that word is rare, however, and is usually used in informal and humorous ways, making it the type of fare not included in our dictionaries. Another fairly recent dietary word is flexitarian, a person who follows a mostly vegetarian diet but occasionally eats meat or fish.

Examples of flexitarian in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Some light flexitarians may eat meat every day of the week except one, while heavy flexitarians might have red meat, poultry, or seafood just once or twice a week. —Christopher Bergland, Verywell Health, 6 Mar. 2025

For this category, the popular WW (formely called Weight Watchers) plan tied with the flexitarian and Volumentrics diets for the No. 1 spot. —Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 4 Jan. 2022

In 2008, just 5% of Hong Kongers classified themselves as vegan or flexitarian, according to a Hong Kong Vegetarian Society survey. —Time, 22 Jan. 2021

There’s a lot of good evidence to show that by far the most effective of 80 total solutions for reversing global warming, number three is reducing food waste and number four is plant rich diets, plant forward, plant centric, also called flexitarian. —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 16 Mar. 2020

The Reducetarian umbrella covers a number of diets, including vegetarian, vegan, omnivore and flexitarian. —Andrea Sachs, Washington Post, 13 Nov. 2019

Foods customers also eat meat — an indication of how the popularity of the company’s products has been driven by a rise of flexitarians: people who are eating less meat without cutting it out completely. —Los Angeles Times, 19 Sep. 2019

Word History

Etymology

flexi(ble) + (vege)tarian entry 1

First Known Use

1998, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for flexitarian

• antiquarian
• libertarian
• millenarian
• nonsectarian
• proletarian
• sanitarian
• trinitarian
• unitarian
• vegetarian
• veterinarian
• agrarian
• aquarian