Meaning & use
cuisine
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountableformal
A characteristic style of cooking associated with a country, region, restaurant, or cook.
Grammar: Use no article for a general style: Thai cuisine; use a when naming one style among several.
Patterns
- French cuisine
- a regional cuisine
- traditional cuisine
Vietnamese cuisine balances herbs, broth, and fresh vegetables.
The hotel restaurant claims to serve modern Mediterranean cuisine.
Word forms
| plural | cuisines |
|---|
Common combinations
- Italian cuisine
- Italian cuisine varies sharply from north to south.
- local cuisine
- Travelers often remember a town through its local cuisine.
- haute cuisine
- The chef trained in haute cuisine before opening a food truck.
- fusion cuisine
- The menu blends Korean and Mexican fusion cuisine.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cookery
- British and more practical or instructional; cuisine sounds refined and regional.
- cooking
- Plain everyday word for preparing food; cuisine points to a recognizable style.
- gastronomy
- The art or study of good food, more abstract than a cuisine.
Word family
- culinary adjective
- Relating to cooking or kitchens; historically related though formed differently.
Commonly confused: cuisine or cousin?
cuisine vs cousin
Cousin is a relative; cuisine is a style of cooking.
Practice
Japanese ____ is famous for careful knife work and seasonal ingredients.
Choose one answer.
Here cuisine is an uncountable general style, so use the singular with no article. Cuisines names more than one style, and the possessive forms do not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cuisine”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.