cafeteria
Americannoun
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a restaurant in which patrons wait on themselves, carrying their food to tables from counters where it is displayed and served.
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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.
noun
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.
Vocabulary lists containing cafeteria
"Journeys," Vocabulary from Lesson 26
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Cuisine
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Excerpt from "Speak"
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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.
Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern on 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 • May 13, 2026
Do they sort of sidle up to you in the elevator and say, “Good job”? Or do they ignore you in the cafeteria and hope that this passes?
From Slate • May 12, 2026
Every student gets a MacBook Air—an upgrade from the midrange laptops given to most Swedish high-schoolers—and lunch is free at a cafeteria perched above a cavernous indoor skate park.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 12, 2026
Those injured include 10 students, four teachers, a cafeteria worker and a police officer, he said.
From BBC • Apr. 14, 2026
Like a gracious host inviting people into her home, Rachel stood and called out over the growing din of the cafeteria, “Alyx, Oliver! Over here.”
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
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.
