ramen

American  

[rah-muhn] / ˈrɑ mən /

noun

Japanese Cooking.

ramens plural

1. (used with a singular verb) a bowl of clear soup containing noodles, vegetables, and often bits of meat.

2. (usually used with a plural verb) the Asian wheat noodles used in this soup.

   I prefer the wavy ramen to the straight ones.

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ramen British  

/ ˈrɑːmən /

noun

1. a Japanese dish consisting of a clear broth containing thin white noodles and sometimes vegetables, meat, etc

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plural noun

1. thin white noodles served in such a broth

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ramens
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ramen

First recorded in 1960–65; from Japanese rāmen, from Chinese lāmiàn literally, “pull noodle”

Explanation

Ramen is a delicious Japanese noodle dish that's most often served in a hot broth. Whether you use chop sticks or a spoon, there's a lot of slurping involved in eating ramen. While ramen was invented in Japan, it was heavily influenced by southern Chinese noodle dishes. The name itself is a Japanese translation of the Mandarin Chinese lāmiàn, or "pulled noodles." You can use ramen for the noodle soup, topped with tofu, nori, scallions, sliced pork, or egg — and you can also refer to the wheat noodles themselves as ramen.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ramen ramens

From garlic-lemon sautéed greens to ramen topped with baby bok choy, here are a few great meals to make with just a box of chicken stock.

From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026

Prosecutors said Alexander Soofer falsified invoices claiming he was serving fresh meals to residents while actually serving breakfast bars and microwavable ramen noodles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

It doesn’t take much to zhuzh up instant ramen into a genuinely good meal.

From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026

Somewhere in the back of my mind lurked the memory of soy-butter corn ramen, another reminder that corn, umami, fat and slurpable carbohydrates have always gotten along beautifully.

From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026

We eat vegetable ramen for dinner, which Hiroshi made specifically because of me.

From "Starfish" by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Yohei Ishida is not simply packing up his various ramens for pickup and delivery from his restaurant on the Lower East Side.

From New York Times ● Jul. 6, 2020

Country is forced to choose between buying a couple precious ramens with his commissary money or saving up weeks of pay to buy a tube of Crest.

From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2018

It’s a sparse menu, only two ramens with a couple of sides, which makes it all the more maddeningly frustrating that it’s not more consistent. 

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 1, 2018

This is Mr. Kim’s most obvious homage to Korean instant ramens, many of which are more fiery than the typical Japanese product.

From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2017

Some of chef and co-owner Metinee “May” Lieppert’s ramens channel the aggressive, fermented flavors of her homeland in northeast Thailand, where the chili pepper heat rivals the sun’s during those unforgiving Isaan summers.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 9, 2015