restaurant
Americannoun
-
restaurants
plural
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
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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.
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I don’t expect restaurant owners to read this and order a fresh shipment of vibrating pucks.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2026
Occasionally, someone stole one, apparently deciding that a restaurant pager belonged in the same category of souvenir as a pebbled Coke glass.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2026
“Until they closed down three or four years ago, my favorite Indian restaurant was this place in Studio City on Ventura Place called Gangadin,” she says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
PepsiCo will still supply many markets for KFC International—the much bigger arm of the restaurant chain, according to an internal KFC message.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Her dad is a chef and wants to open a restaurant of his own, and her mom is a marine biologist.
From "Clairboyance" by Kristiana Kahakauwila
I began noticing their absence most acutely when restaurants reopened after the first wave of the pandemic.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2026
Indigo Road Hospitality Group, an owner of restaurants and boutique hotels, named Catherine Woods as chief marketing officer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
PepsiCo’s drinks will still be available at many KFCs abroad, as well as Taco Bell restaurants, the Wall Street Journal reported.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026
Two restaurants display signs claiming to have served Robert Francis Prevost.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
“Well, it’s getting late. We should probably get lunch at one of those restaurants the tour guide recommended. Then we can find the Doors of Death.”
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
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