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

For Malaysian street food, head to Roti King (several locations around the city), where Carver says visitors should order the Roti Canai. —Regan Stephens, Travel + Leisure, 20 Jan. 2026

The business partners’ Tahini is a quick-service shawarma and falafel street food restaurant based in Kearny Mesa. —Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Jan. 2026

Far from the neon lights of Tokyo, temples and shrines of Kyoto and the Osaka street food scene is Okinawa, Japan’s southernmost — and westernmost — prefecture. —Catherine Garcia, TheWeek, 16 Jan. 2026

Franzl’s Franks was inspired by Austria’s street food scene, and takes a page from owner Murray’s favorite käsekrainer operation — which sits just next to the Vienna State Opera, where Murray studied. —Stephanie Breijo, Los Angeles Times, 16 Jan. 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