street food

noun

plural street foods

: prepared food of a kind that is typically sold to customers on a street or sidewalk and that is often designed to be carried and eaten while walking

Pizza is quintessentially a street food: a quick lunch or a quick snack often eaten standing up or on the go.

—Don Lesser

Traditionally eaten as street food, empanadas are ideal for snacking on the go but are just as satisfying to sit down to for a simple dinner.

—Melissa Roberts and Maggie Ruggiero

Satays, which are skewered and grilled morsels of beef, fish, chicken, pork, or vegetables, are street food in Southeast Asia, devoured day and night with gusto.

—Karen MacNeil

Examples of street food in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The new Florida location at the UTC mall, between South Florida and Tampa, also marks the brand’s first street food sweet shop. — Jason Dill, Miami Herald, 28 Sep. 2026

The restaurant is known for serving Jianbing, which is a Chinese breakfast street food similar to crepes. — Jeramie Bizzle, CBS News, 28 Sep. 2026

Cantina Alley, which has served Mexican street food in Sacramento for nine years, announced a second location will open in the Folsom Historic District. — Emma Hall, Sacbee.com, 24 Sep. 2026

There’s a new restaurant in South Charlotte serving up classic Mexican street food. — Tanasia Kenney, Charlotte Observer, 16 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for street food

• accrued
• allude
• collude
• conclude
• construed
• debuted
• delude
• elude
• endued
• ensued
• eschewed
• etude

Kids Definition

street food

noun

: prepared food of a kind that is typically sold to customers on a street or sidewalk and that is often designed to be carried and eaten while walking