Cafeteria

//ˌkafəˈtɪə̯.ɹi.ə// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A restaurant in which customers select their food at a counter then carry it on a tray to a table to eat. Canada, US
  2. 2
    a restaurant where you serve yourself and pay a cashier wordnet
  3. 3
    A dining area in an institution where meals may be purchased (as above), provided, or brought in from elsewhere. Canada, US

Synonyms

All synonyms
canteenlunchroomautomatbeanerybistrobuffet

Example

More examples

"I am tired of eating at the school cafeteria."

Etymology

Borrowed from Mexican Spanish cafetería (“coffeehouse”), from cafetera (“coffee maker”), from French cafetière, from café, from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve) (Turkish kahve), from Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa, “coffee”). Doublet of cafetière.

Related phrases

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.