processed meat

noun

Any meat that has been modified to preserve or improve its flavor through methods like smoking, curing, salting, or adding chemical preservatives; includes (mechanically separated) lunch meat (like salami), as well as hotdogs and sausage.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounprocessed meat (plural processed meats)

plural processed meats

  1. Any meat that has been modified to preserve or improve its flavor through methods like smoking, curing, salting, or adding chemical preservatives; includes (mechanically separated) lunch meat (like salami), as well as hotdogs and sausage.

    Fatty, processed luncheon meats like bologna, salami and pepperoni have large amounts of saturated fat and sodium, both of which have been linked to cancer, obesity and heart disease ... In fact, processed meats are actually considered carcinogenic.

    2023 September 11, Cleveland Clinic

Origin

From processed + meat.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

processed meat. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/processed%20meat

MLA

“processed meat.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/processed%20meat. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “processed meat,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/processed%20meat.

Source: processed meat on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.