In the broadest sense, according to the dictionary, the term vegetable is used to define anything living that isn’t animal or mineral ― think the vegetable kingdom (which is another term for plant kingdom).
If you ask a cook, a vegetable is also a term used to define the parts of the plant that we eat― the plant matter on our plates such as salad, braised greens, carrots or potatoes.
But if you ask a botanist, they’ll tell you there’s no such thing as a vegetable. “The term vegetable has no meaning in botany,” Amy Litt, director of plant genomics and Cullman curator at The New York Botanical Garden explained to LiveScience.
Why? Because from a biological standpoint, what we call vegetables are really just parts of plants. So botanists just call them by their parts. Asparagus is the stalk of a plant. Broccoli is the flower of a plant. Kale is the leaves of a plant. Onions are the bulb of a plant. Carrots are the root of a plant. Tomatoes are the fruit of a plant.