Meaning & use

appetizer

noun·Everyday

A small dish of food served before the main course of a meal.

See it in a sentence

We ordered shrimp cocktail as an appetizer while we waited for our entrees.

The restaurant's appetizer menu included soup, salad, and a sampler of fried snacks.

A note on using this word

American English uses 'appetizer'; British English typically calls the same course a 'starter.'

Words with a similar meaning

starterhors d'oeuvre

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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