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

Choose from a menu of classic Thai dishes, including a special street food section that includes dishes like Boat Noodles, Khao Soi, and Moo Grob. —Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 27 Sep. 2025

From Filipino street food to modern Chinese cuisine, Sacramento chefs are showcasing their roots and flavors this weekend as Terra Madre Americas brings one of the country’s largest new food festivals to the city. —Marcus Smith, Sacbee.com, 26 Sep. 2025

Enjoy the daily rotating lunch special (a nod to the original street food cart) of prawn fritters or duck salad with Vietnamese coffee tiramisu for dessert. —Gizelle Lau, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025

The downtown presence of Koco Bell Express instantly will increase Asian street food competition in the area. —Michael Deeds, Idaho Statesman, 11 Sep. 2025

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