A vegetable is generally defined as any edible part of a plant that is consumed as food, excluding the botanical fruits and seeds, though culinary and cultural traditions often influence what is considered a vegetable. Vegetables include a wide range of plant parts such as roots (carrots, beets), stems (celery, asparagus), leaves (lettuce, spinach), flowers (broccoli, cauliflower), and sometimes seeds and fruits that are eaten as part of a main meal (like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants)

. Botanically, fruits are the seed-bearing structures that develop from the ovary of a flowering plant, while vegetables are all other edible parts of the plant-roots, stems, leaves, and flowers-that do not contain seeds in the same way fruits do

. However, in everyday language and cooking, many botanical fruits are treated as vegetables due to their savory flavor profiles and culinary uses. For example, tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash are botanically fruits but are commonly classified as vegetables in cooking and legal contexts (such as the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on tomatoes)

. In summary, what makes a vegetable a vegetable is primarily that it is an edible part of a plant other than the seed-bearing fruit, often including roots, stems, leaves, and flowers, and it is typically consumed in savory dishes rather than sweet ones