bento

American  

[ben-toh] / ˈbɛn toʊ /

noun

Japanese Cooking.

bentos, plural bento plural

1. a meal, usually served in a lacquered or elaborately decorated box that is divided into sections for holding individual portions of food.

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bento British  

/ ˈbɛntəʊ /

noun

1. a thin box, made of plastic or lacquered wood, divided into compartments which contain small separate dishes comprising a Japanese meal, esp lunch

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bento
  plural
• bentos
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bento

< Japanese bentō, probably < Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese bān manage, provide + dāng apply, i.e., provision for an eat-out meal

Explanation

A bento is a Japanese boxed lunch for one person. A bento is usually served in special dishes or containers with separate compartments for each dish. A bento typically consists of meat or fish, rice or noodles, cooked vegetables, and pickles, each tucked into its own little section. In Japan, people take home-cooked bento boxes to work or school, but they can also order a bento at a restaurant or buy one at convenience stores, in airports, or on trains. The Japanese bento comes from the Chinese biandang, "convenient."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bento bentos

She’s been ordering Goop Kitchen regularly ever since, and shares a favorite order with Paltrow: the miso salmon bento box.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

Her book, “Lunches Children Love,” is about making cute bento lunches filled with laughing faces and animals made out of food.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2024

As a New Year’s custom, Brackett typically prepares osechi bento, handmade boxes with traditional Japanese holiday dishes, for customers who preorder them.

From New York Times ● Jan. 26, 2024

And no train journey there is complete without a bento.

From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2024

She also went to my favorite little Japanese cafe and got me a bento box of Japanese fried chicken with rice, miso soup, and potato salad.

From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh

Its history as a beloved institution — famous for the Japanese-style architecture at some stations and for its boxed meals, known as railway bentos — has made change politically difficult.

From New York Times ● Jul. 19, 2021

This month, an announcement that bentos can now be ordered online made the evening news.

From New York Times ● May 12, 2016

And that’s not even mentioning the New Year’s bento boxes for dogs, which look pretty much exactly the same as the exquisite bentos made for humans.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 20, 2014