cafeteria

American  

[kaf-i-teer-ee-uh] / ˌkæf ɪˈtɪər i ə /

noun

• cafeterias
  plural

1. a restaurant in which patrons wait on themselves, carrying their food to tables from counters where it is displayed and served.

2. a lunchroom or dining hall, as in a factory, office, or school, where food is served from counters or dispensed from vending machines or where food brought from home may be eaten.

---

cafeteria British  

/ ˌkæfɪˈtɪərɪə /

noun

1. a self-service restaurant

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cafeterias
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cafeteria

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40; from Latin American Spanish cafetería “café,” Spanish cafeter(a) “coffeemaker,” from French caf(f)etière (equivalent to café + etière feminine of -ier ); t apparently by analogy with words such as bouquetière “flower seller,” from bases ending in t ) + -ía; see origin at coffee, -ier ²

Explanation

A cafeteria is a restaurant where you serve yourself, then pay a cashier. Most schools have a cafeteria serving up sloppy joes and square pizza. "Let's go to the cafeteria!" usually means "Let's eat!" Most people think of school cafeterias, but they can exist elsewhere — a lot of Ikea stores actually have cafeterias for the customers. Cafeteria-style refers to any restaurant where you grab what you want and then pay for it before eating. Cafeterias usually aren't known for having the best food in the world, so if you have another option, go for it.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cafeteria cafeterias

The entire offensive line eats together at lunch in the cafeteria.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2026

"The building is falling apart, the cafeteria is too small. There's zero budget, zero resources, not enough supervisors," Raphael said.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

In “Let Them Eat Goo,” South Park Elementary decides to replace its cafeteria meat with a plant-based substitute after Cartman suffers two heart attacks.

From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026

Dahlia and Mark sit down with Slow Burn to discuss how Gorsuch fits into the current court, where he’s going next, and why he never took his job on the cafeteria committee seriously.

From Slate ● Aug. 29, 2026

There’d been a part of me that had thought I might make it into the cafeteria and get something from the line, but that same part hadn’t accounted for reality.

From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows

Across Israel, a schnitzel sandwich like this one, sometimes served with Yemeni zhug or Iraqi amba, is everywhere from bus stations to school cafeterias.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

Cook is regularly spotted walking the halls of Apple Park or grabbing lunch at one of Apple’s Caffè Mac cafeterias.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026

At UC hospitals, union members work in cafeterias, as radiology technologists and as nurse’s aides, among other roles.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026

In many cases, both the chains and the institutions themselves profit from these deals, turning cafeterias and lobbies into a quiet engine of revenue.

From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2025

The sit-ins to desegregate restaurants and cafeterias that were now taking place across the South had originated in Greensboro.

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson

Related Words

• lunchroom
• snack bar