pantry

American  

[pan-tree] / ˈpæn tri /

noun

• pantries
  plural

1. a room or closet in which food, groceries, and other provisions, or silverware, dishes, etc., are kept.

2. a room between the kitchen and dining room in which food is arranged for serving, glassware and dishes are stored, etc.

3.  food pantry.  a shelter or other place where food is dispensed to people experiencing food insecurity, either as groceries or as meals.

---

pantry British  

/ ˈpæntrɪ /

noun

1. a small room or cupboard in which provisions, cooking utensils, etc, are kept; larder

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pantries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pantry

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English panetrie, from Anglo-French; Old French paneterie “bread room,” equivalent to panet(er) “to bake bread” (derivative of pan “bread,” from Latin pānis ) + -erie noun suffix; see -ery

Explanation

A pantry is an area in or near a kitchen where food is stored. When you buy a hundred boxes of macaroni and cheese that are on sale, you'll need to make room in the pantry for them. Not every kitchen has a pantry, a dedicated space for storing food and other supplies. In some cases a pantry is a closet or cupboard with shelves, and sometimes a pantry is an entirely separate room adjacent to the kitchen. The Anglo-French source of pantry, panetrie, means "bread room," from the Medieval Latin panataria, "room of a servant in charge of food or bread." The Latin root, panis, means "bread."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pantry pantries

Think of it as the culinary equivalent of shopping your pantry: What two, three or four ingredients keep appearing together in your cooking?

From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2026

She founded crisis support centre Second Chance Medway, which runs a discounted food pantry two days a week, where she now sees not only people on benefits, but working people too.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

Buy one jar of good jam for the pantry and go home.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026

Lawyers offered free legal consultations to immigrants throughout the convention and the organization provided a food pantry at the end of the event.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026

Storage boxes are now piled in the hall closet, the pantry, and Mom and Dad’s bedroom closet.

From "Black Brother, Black Brother" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

A spokesperson said it also encouraged physical activity through accessible play facilities and had "several" community pantries and shops that offered "healthy, low cost or free choices for families".

From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2026

Some officers are taking on second jobs or relying on donations, union officials say, while several major airports are collecting gift cards and stocking food pantries for TSA staff struggling without pay.

From Barron's ● Mar. 21, 2026

They can buy 10 of an item on sale because they have both the liquid capital and the physical space—large pantries or even second freezers—to store it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026

On the ground level, this means community volunteer efforts like neighborhood environmental cleanups, helping food pantries distribute sustenance to families in need and volunteers assisting underfunded local libraries.

From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2025

We skirted it, moving through pantries to a storage room right at the end of the known world.

From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck

Related Words

• cellar
• closet
• cupboard