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• café
  café

  noun

  a small, unpretentious restaurant, often with exterior seating on a patio or extending onto the sidewalk.
• CAFE
  CAFE

  noun

  a U.S. federally mandated standard of average minimum miles-per-gallon fuel consumption for all the cars produced by an automobile manufacturer in a given year.

café

¹ American  

[ka-fay, kuh-, ka-fay] / kæˈfeɪ, kə-, kaˈfeɪ /

Or cafe

noun

• cafés
  plural

1. a small, unpretentious restaurant, often with exterior seating on a patio or extending onto the sidewalk.

   Synonyms:

   tearoom, lunchroom, bistro, coffeehouse

2. coffee.

   I pick up a café and a croissant on my commute in to work every morning.

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CAFE ² American  

[ka-fay, kuh-] / kæˈfeɪ, kə- /

noun

1. a U.S. federally mandated standard of average minimum miles-per-gallon fuel consumption for all the cars produced by an automobile manufacturer in a given year.

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café British  

/ ˈkæfeɪ, ˈkæfɪ /

noun

1. a small or inexpensive restaurant or coffee bar, serving light meals and refreshments

2. a corner shop or grocer

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Spelling

See resume ².

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cafés
  plural

Etymology

Origin of café¹

First recorded in 1780–90; from French: literally, “coffee”; see origin at coffee

Origin of CAFE²

C(orporate) A(verage) F(uel) E(conomy)

Compare meaning

How does cafe compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• bistro vs. CAFE
• CAFE vs. coffee shop

Explanation

A cafe is a coffee shop, or a small restaurant where coffee is served. Your neighborhood cafe might be a good place to get a piece of pie and a cup of coffee. You could stop by a cafe for lunch, or just grab a coffee and a muffin to go. You can also call a cafe a "coffeehouse" or "coffee shop," and while the word is similar to cafeteria — and the two share a root word — a cafeteria tends to be a buffet-style restaurant or dining hall. Cafe comes from the French café, which means both "coffee" and "coffeehouse."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

café CAFE cafés

Recently, I was ordering coffee at a neighborhood café, one location of a regional chain.

From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026

Staying vigilant - do you really need to leave your bag or laptop to reserve a café table or a spot in the library?

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

We arrived at Orikum and sat down for a caffè freddo at a café overlooking the sea.

From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026

A second complainant told jurors he had kissed Bowen in a café after being "goaded" into it by other boys.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

Back in Chicago, I spent summer afternoons shopping for new school clothes or sipping iced mochas with Skye and Madi at my favorite café.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

But this was all in a day’s work for CAFE, or the corporate average fuel economy rules, enacted in 1975.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026

That would be the main focus of the school’s proposed Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, or CAFE.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 20, 2022

"CAFE is not a public health regulation," said Graham, who is a member of EPA's Science Advisory Board.

From Science Magazine ● Aug. 1, 2018

The corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, program is shared between two agencies: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and EPA, which is the latecomer.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 1, 2018

You've only to step round the corner of Smith's Hotel on the side street and read the sign: LADIES' AND GENT'S CAFE, just as large and as imposing as ever.

From Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock

Chiang Mai has plenty of inviting cafés and coworking spaces to choose from.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026

It’s set in Los Angeles but the cafés and shops are obviously not local and the worst, most dated stock L.A. traffic footage can’t cover that up.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

“The hype started in Japan. In Japan there are even cafés where you have contact with capybaras. And the internet helped, and the public is always curious. They want to know about the species.”

From Slate ● May 27, 2026

“Walking through the historic streets and discovering small cafés and boutiques gives you a true sense of the city,” she says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026

It's one of my favorite squares in Amsterdam, with a statue of the painter in the middle and cafés around the border, where Mama used to take me for special treats.

From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse