junk food

American  

noun

1. food, as potato chips or candy, that is high in calories but of little nutritional value.

2. anything that is attractive and diverting but of negligible substance.

   the junk food offered by daytime television.

---

junk food British  

noun

1. food that is low in nutritional value, often highly processed or ready-prepared, and eaten instead of or in addition to well-balanced meals

---

junk food Idioms  

1. Prepackaged snack food that is high in calories but low in nutritional value; also, anything attractive but negligible in value. For example, Nell loves potato chips and other junk food, or When I'm sick in bed I often resort to TV soap operas and similar junk food. [c. 1970]

---

Other Word Forms

• junk-food
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of junk food

An Americanism dating back to 1970–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

junk food

But today, with our easy access to cheap, calorie-dense junk food and sedentary routines, those same adaptations that once helped us to survive can cause us a few issues.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026

"I thought it was actually really helpful because teenagers today are really big into junk food, and don't exercise as much."

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026

“If you’ve only fed them junk food and then you put some beautiful Michelin-star food in front of them, it’ll seem alien to them,” she says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

The monkeys with the most frequent soil consumption munch on tourist junk food that is "high in sugar, high in salt, high in dairy, which the macaques can't digest," said Lemoine.

From Barron's ● May 22, 2026

There was a camp rule against junk food, so she’d wrap a bag of M&M’s in brown paper, cover it with a thousand pieces of tape, and label it thumbtacks or something.

From "Goodbye Stranger" by Rebecca Stead