noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A traditional style of eatery having public seating and multiple vendors selling Chinese, Indian, and Malay food. Malaysia, Singapore

   "Bustling kopitiams sprouted around derelict whiskey bars like toadstools around rotting logs."

Synonyms

All synonyms

coffee shop

Example

More examples

"Bustling kopitiams sprouted around derelict whiskey bars like toadstools around rotting logs."

Etymology

Borrowed from Malay kopitiam, from Hokkien 咖啡店 (ko-pi-tiàm), in turn from Malay kopi (“coffee”).

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