What Does Cafeteria Mean?
A cafeteria is a place where you pick your own food from a counter, put it on a tray, pay and sit down. Schools, hospitals and offices often have one.
It is a noun, and you can count it: one cafeteria, two cafeterias.
We eat lunch in the school cafeteria.
The cafeteria serves soup and pasta on Mondays.
🔊 Pronunciation
kaf-uh-TEER-ee-uh
The stress is on the middle part.
🗣️ Natural Examples
The school cafeteria has a salad bar.
I sat with my friends in the cafeteria.
The cafeteria is loud at lunchtime.
Dad eats in the office cafeteria on Fridays.
The cafeteria staff made soup.
🛠️ How to Use It
Cafeteria is common, especially in American English.
- It is a place where you serve yourself or choose from a counter.
- British English often says canteen for a school or work dining room.
- Use in the cafeteria or at the cafeteria.
- A cafeteria tray is the tray you carry.
🤝 Common Word Partners
- the school cafeteria
- a cafeteria tray
- cafeteria food
- a cafeteria worker
- in the cafeteria
- the office cafeteria
👯 Similar and Related Words
- canteen: the British word for a school or work dining room.
- café: a small place for drinks and snacks.
- dining hall: a large room for eating.
- restaurant: a place where staff bring your food to the table.
⚠️ Common Mistakes
Spelling. Be careful in the middle: -ter-.
❌ cafetaria, cafateria
✅ cafeteria
Cafeteria or café?
✅ A café is a small place for drinks and snacks.
✅ A cafeteria is a self-service place for meals.
Use in or at.
❌ We ate lunch on the cafeteria.
✅ We ate lunch in the cafeteria.
💬 In a Conversation
Sam: Where do we eat lunch?
Mia: In the cafeteria.
Sam: Is there coffee?
Mia: Not for children.
Sam: But the word means coffee shop.
Mia: It used to. Now it means mashed potatoes.
🕵️ Where Does It Come From?
The word comes from Spanish cafetería, "coffee shop", from café, "coffee", plus the ending -tería, a place where something is done. English had it in the 1830s with the meaning "café".
By the 1890s, it meant a self-service place to eat. People later heard the ending as "help-yourself", and from about 1923 English made new words with that ending. Cafeterias spread to factories from 1915, and schools and colleges followed.
💡 The OddLingo Trick
Hidden in the word is café, French for coffee.
A cafeteria is a coffee place that grew up and started serving lunch.