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 event, heralded as one of the largest outdoor Asian food festivals in the United States, will bring the vibrant Asian street food scene to Music City. —Diana Leyva, Nashville Tennessean, 5 Sep. 2025

Get the recipe > Spice up your backyard barbecue with this easy Mexican street food classic. —Saveur Editors, Saveur, 4 Sep. 2025

In the video above, watch as local culinary expert Daniel Bromberg leads a street food adventure through Montréal, one of Canada’s most diverse cities. —AFAR Media, 2 Sep. 2025

Arayes — a traditional Middle Eastern street food — are crispy on the outside, flavorful on the inside and undoubtedly delicious. —Samantha Husted, Charlotte Observer, 27 Aug. 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