à la carte
Americanadjective
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with a separate price for each dish offered on the menu.
dinner à la carte.
-
with a separate price for each item on a list.
Spa treatments can be booked à la carte, or you can choose one of our packages.
adjective
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(of a menu or a section of a menu) having dishes listed separately and individually priced Compare table d'hôte
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(of a dish) offered on such a menu; not part of a set meal
Etymology
Origin of à la carte
First recorded in 1815–20; from French: literally, “according to the menu”; see origin at carte
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.
Experts say airlines started to really embrace the a la carte — or unbundled — pricing model when online travel-booking platforms came of age several years ago.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 10, 2026
In these fast-moving, unpredictable times, Europe's leaders are increasingly turning to a la carte coalitions, alongside traditional organisations like Nato or the EU, which are larger and therefore often slower to react.
From BBC • Feb. 16, 2026
The San Francisco company now offers a la carte shopping—a departure from its traditional, stylist-curated subscription-box service—and gives customers more options on the number of items that are in a box, as examples.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 22, 2025
The company doesn’t lease its pieces a la carte, instead offering tailored whole-home packages with on-site setup.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 10, 2025
That I preferred to live a la carte.
From The Sorrows of a Show Girl by McGaffey, Kenneth
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.
