cafeteria
n. countablen. a large room where people can buy and eat meals, usually in a school, office, or hospital.
n. a large room or hall where meals are served, typically in an institution such as a school, university, or workplace.
We ate lunch in the school cafeteria.
The office cafeteria offers a wide variety of hot meals for employees during their break.
The university cafeteria buzzed with the energy of students debating politics over steaming plates of food.
Borrowed from Mexican Spanish cafetería (“coffeehouse”), from cafetera (“coffee maker”), from French cafetière, from café, from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve) (Turkish kahve), from Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa, “coffee”). Doublet of cafetière.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Last updated May 4, 2026