café

or ca·fe

[ka-fey, kuh- or especially for 4, French ka-fey]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR café ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural ca·fés [ka-feyz, kuh- or especially for 4, French ka-fey] /kæˈfeɪz, kə- or especially for 4, French kaˈfeɪ/.

a restaurant, often with an enclosed or outdoor section extending onto the sidewalk.

a restaurant, usually small and unpretentious.

a barroom, cabaret, or nightclub.

coffee.

Origin of café

1780–90; < French: literally, coffee

Synonyms for café

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR café ON THESAURUS.COM

1, 2. coffeehouse, bistro, lunchroom, tearoom.

CAFE

[ka-fey, kuh-]

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.

Origin of CAFE

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for cafe

cafeteria, bistro, diner, joint, tearoom, chophouse, lunchroom, luncheonette, noshery

Examples from the Web for cafe

Contemporary Examples of cafe

As a cafe in Sydney, Australia came under siege by a hostage-taking gunman on Monday, those nearby attempted to flee the area.
In Defense of Uber’s Awful Sydney Surge Pricing
Olivia Nuzzi
December 16, 2014
But in October 2010, Palestinian security forces stormed into an Internet cafe and arrested me.
What It’s Like to Be an Atheist in Palestine
Waleed al-Husseini, Movements.Org
December 8, 2014
In January, an attack on a Lebanese cafe popular with expats left 21 people dead.
Heart of Darkness: Into Afghanistan’s Taliban Valley
Matt Trevithick, Daniel Seckman
November 15, 2014
At daybreak, they borrowed a small sum of money from a passing family, then called their families from an Internet cafe.
Abducted, Tortured, Indoctrinated: The Tale of a Teen Who Escaped ISIS
Yusuf Sayman
August 4, 2014
In the morning, join the intelligentsia at Cafe Pamplona, a European-style coffeehouse, also by Harvard Square.
The U.S. Road Trips You Should Really Take
Lonely Planet
April 26, 2014

Historical Examples of cafe

He proved that he had spent the evening up to eleven o'clock in a cafe.
A Comedy of Marriage and Other Tales
Guy De Maupassant
When Rose married him he was leader of the orchestra at a cafe concert where she sang.
A Zola Dictionary
J. G. Patterson
It was Dubuche, whom she knew from having seen him on one occasion at the Cafe Baudequin.
His Masterpiece
Emile Zola
"If I were you I should have it in from the cafe," old Bosc slowly announced.
Nana, The Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille
Emile Zola
"I've been to the cafe occasionally," Claude said to Florent.
The Fat and the Thin
Emile Zola

British Dictionary definitions for cafe

café

noun

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

Southern African a corner shop or grocer

Word Origin for café

C19: from French: coffee

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cafe

1802, from French café "coffee, coffeehouse," from Italian caffe "coffee" (see coffee). The beverage was introduced in Venice by 1615 and in France from 1650s by merchants and travelers who had been to Turkey and Egypt. The first public café might have been the one opened in Marseilles in 1660.