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

Think night markets in Thailand, cooking schools in Vietnam and street food tours in Malaysia. —Taylor Haught, Kansas City Star, 17 Dec. 2025

With taiko drumming, Japanese street food, yo-yo fishing, and a live tuna-cutting show greeting guests, the event blended traditional festival roots with contemporary music culture. —Walaa Elsiddig, Billboard, 15 Dec. 2025

The visual alone is striking, but the act also triggered a giveaway foretold over a month before when The Wiener’s Circle, a Chicago street food institution, promised free hot dogs in exchange for just such a display. —Hannah Keyser, CNN Money, 4 Dec. 2025

Sample local street foods like taiyaki and senbei from family-run stalls nestled along narrow alleys. —Bon Appétit, Bon Appetit Magazine, 4 Dec. 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