Meaning & use
hors d'oeuvres
Small savory food items served before a meal to stimulate the appetite.
See it in a sentence
The caterers passed around trays of hors d'oeuvres before the main course arrived.
We nibbled on cheese and crackers as hors d'oeuvres while waiting for dinner.
A note on using this word
Borrowed from French and pronounced 'or-DERVZ'; 'horderves' is a common phonetic misspelling of this tricky term.
Words with a similar meaning
appetizersstarters
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hors d'oeuvres”, then compare your use with the examples above.
Your draft stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.