restaurant
Americannoun
-
restaurants
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of restaurant
An Americanism first recorded in 1820–30; from French, noun use of present participle of restaurer, from Latin restaurāre “to restore, reestablish”; cf. re- ( def. ), store
Compare meaning
How does restaurant compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A restaurant is a place — usually inside a building — where you go to eat food, which, most of the time, you must pay for. Restaurant comes from the French restaurer, which means "to provide food for." Restaurants will provide food for you if you've got the cash, and most of the time they'll even let you sit down right there and eat it. Common examples of restaurants include burger joints, cafeterias, pizzerias, sandwich shops, steak houses, seafood shacks, (some) hot-dog stands, ice cream parlors, taquerias, Chinese takeout, (some) bakeries, and fine-dining establishments.
Vocabulary lists containing restaurant
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
So here are all 18 restaurant stocks in the S&P Composite 1500, ranked by the percentage of “buy” or equivalent ratings among analysts polled by LSEG.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
In 2025, he opened FOOD, a restaurant that paid homage to the 1970s restaurant opened by artists Gordon Matta-Clark, his then-partner Carol Goodden, and Tina Girouard; both restaurants catered to local artists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
The company is now one of the biggest restaurant holding companies in the world, with more than 33,400 locations generating $33.4 billion in sales globally.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
"Not a single care home could work operate, not a single hospital, not a single restaurant," he said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
I had caught glimpses of the fashion shows in the open-air restaurant on the seventh floor.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Many investors will shy away from a discretionary industry such as restaurants, as people are facing so much cost pressure.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
He said cockroaches were also found in places including restaurants and parts of the transport industry, and could be transported in suitcases and bags.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Campari has been drip-feeding Sarti to U.S. bars, restaurants and retailers since June in what Neri, the aperitifs boss, called a scarcity approach to drive demand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
Jason Hendifar of Waldorf Restaurant Group said only half of his 10 restaurants in Los Angeles are profitable.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
