restaurant
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of restaurant
An Americanism first recorded in 1820–30; from French, noun use of present participle of restaurer, from Latin restaurāre “to restore, reestablish”; cf. re- ( def. ), store
Compare meaning
How does restaurant compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A restaurant is a place — usually inside a building — where you go to eat food, which, most of the time, you must pay for. Restaurant comes from the French restaurer, which means "to provide food for." Restaurants will provide food for you if you've got the cash, and most of the time they'll even let you sit down right there and eat it. Common examples of restaurants include burger joints, cafeterias, pizzerias, sandwich shops, steak houses, seafood shacks, (some) hot-dog stands, ice cream parlors, taquerias, Chinese takeout, (some) bakeries, and fine-dining establishments.
Vocabulary lists containing restaurant
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That might be starting to change, thanks partly to Burnt Hill, which opened in 2025 and introduced a 12-seat chef’s counter at the vineyard’s restaurant this spring.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
The restaurant chain said on Monday Julie Masino will leave in August, with the former boss of Bloomin' Brands, David Deno, taking over.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Grocery and restaurant prices are 11.5% and 24.9% higher in New York City, respectively, according to cost-of-living database Numbeo.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
There is a spa trip and fancy dinner at a restaurant and behind it all, lurking silently, a cancer scare.
From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026
They broke for lunch in the dining commons, which was more like a nice restaurant than a typical office cafeteria, but they were all too nervous to enjoy the meal.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
She pressed forward with a revamp that included remaking the folksy logo atop Cracker Barrel restaurants, pulling antique tchotchkes off the walls and changing the menu.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Former MP and ex-CEO of UK Music Michael Dugher urged the airport on social media to "at least allow people to use the chairs in all the closed restaurants and bars".
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
The week will also offer more detail about how the Iran war, rising costs and the widening cyclospora outbreak are affecting what people buy in grocery stores and restaurants.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 26, 2026
Vienna's heurigers range from a few tables set up in the open air to grander affairs resembling restaurants.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
Often, Bobby walked barely two blocks from his apartment to one of his favorite restaurants, Anestu Grösum—“The First Vegetarian”—and climbed the stairway to the pumpkin-painted second-floor eatery.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
