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

Various tacos and nachos with guacamole and chili con carne served at a street food festival. —Lee Ying Shan, CNBC, 8 May 2026

Jianbing, Jie Yu tells me, is one of the most popular street foods in China. —Amy Drew Thompson, The Orlando Sentinel, 6 May 2026

Hai Hai Blending Southeast Asian street food with a jaunt to the tropics, chef-owner Christina Nguyen won the James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest in 2024. —Kristine Hansen, Travel + Leisure, 4 May 2026

Offering different street food options, such as skewers and noodle bowls, one of the signature items is the barbecue pork Khmer sandwich. —Carolyn Burt, Oc Register, 1 May 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