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 street festival on Saturday was a family-friendly affair, with parents and children browsing street food stalls and attending traditional dance performances. —Jessie Yeung, CNN Money, 27 Apr. 2025

Location Set just outside the south gate of Chiang Mai’s Old City, the hotel sits in a walkable neighborhood close to street food stalls, temples, and the weekend walking market. —Lauren Mowery, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025

These are one of Puglia’s iconic recipes and street foods: savory fresh pork meatballs stuffed with cheese and pepper. —Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2025

Metro Denver residents hungry for Chicago street food could soon have several options for a Portillo’s Italian beef or hot dog, according to Thornton and Littleton city planning documents. —Katie Langford, The Denver Post, 20 Mar. 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