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tapas

American  
[tuhp-uhs] / ˈtʌp əs /

noun

Yoga.
  1. the conditioning of the body through the proper kinds and amounts of diet, rest, bodily training, meditation, etc., to bring it to the greatest possible state of creative power.


tapas British  
/ ˈtæpəs /

plural noun

    1. light snacks or appetizers, usually eaten with drinks

    2. ( as modifier )

      a tapas bar

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of tapas

First recorded in 1930–35; from Sanskrit: “penance,” literally, “heat”; akin to Latin tepēre “to be lukewarm” ( see tepid ( def. ))


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:

As Navarro and a reporter order tapas dishes for the next two hours, patrons at nearby tables raise their cellphone cameras.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2026

Unlike da Vinci, who was born in Tuscany, our dinner plan—a cicchetti crawl—was unquestionably Venetian, and a chance to sample the city’s bite-sized answers to Spanish tapas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026

Three-year-old Madeleine vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Portugal's Praia da Luz in May 2007 while her parents dined at a nearby tapas bar.

From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025

I am a master of sitting in a hotel room and finishing some not-even-that-time-sensitive work when I should be out at a tapas bar on a nominal vacation.

From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2025

When we’re ready to rest, we have tapas at one of the cafés on the Plaza de Santa Ana, next to a statue of the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca.

From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar

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