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

Noteworthy vendors from outside of San Diego at this two-day event are Tanghulua, serving up Chinese street food, and WobbleBake, making Japanese soufflé pancakes. —Carlos Rico, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Apr. 2026

This week in Atlanta, work remotely during a DJ set at a cafe, experiment with caviar and street food or get tickets to a supper club combining Korean and Indian flavors. —Olivia Wakim, AJC.com, 21 Apr. 2026

Festivities typically include parades, street food, block parties, mariachi competitions, and baile folklórico, or folkloric ballet, with whirling dancers wearing bright, ruffled dresses and their hair tied with shiny ribbons. —Todd Feurer, CBS News, 20 Apr. 2026

The creamy, sweet, tangy flavors of the iconic street food, but in a convenient squeeze bottle. —Katlyn Moncada, Better Homes & Gardens, 17 Apr. 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