Menu Definition & Meaning

American

British

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms menu American [men-yoo] / ˈmɛn yu /

noun

1. 1. a list of the dishes that can be ordered in a restaurant or that will be served at a formal meal; bill of fare.

      Ask the waiter for a menu.

   2. the dishes themselves.

      First on the menu was a delicious broccoli soup.

2. any list or set of items, activities, etc., from which to choose.

   What's on the menu this weekend—golf, tennis, swimming?

3. Digital Technology. a list of options available to a user, as displayed on a screen or listed in a recorded telephone greeting.

   From the main menu at the top of the window, select Tools and then Internet Options.

verb (used with object)

1. to make available for ordering at a restaurant.

   There will be one entrée and one salad menued each day.

   Some casual restaurants have begun menuing alcoholic beverages.

menu British / ˈmɛnjuː /

noun

1. a list of dishes served at a meal or that can be ordered in a restaurant

2. a list of options displayed on a visual display unit from which the operator selects an action to be carried out by positioning the cursor or by depressing the appropriate key

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

• menued adjective
• menuing noun

Etymology

Origin of menu

First recorded in 1650–60; from French: “detailed list,” noun use of menu “small, detailed,” from Latin minūtus minute 2

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

However, many of the fruit species they regularly eat contain measurable ethanol, indicating that alcohol is a routine part of their menu and was probably present in the diets of our human ancestors as well.

From Science Daily

“Social media is the way cocktail bartenders especially think about building menus,” Infante says.

From Salon

But at Woohoo, the brains behind the menu is not a person but an AI programme -- known as chef Aiman -- trained on thousands of recipes and decades of culinary research and molecular gastronomy.

From Barron's

Though there isn’t a frozen burrito on the menu of Duane’s menu, Roberts remained enormously proud of the product that had made his fortune.

From The Wall Street Journal

I went out to dinner a few weeks ago, saw this item on the menu and immediately ordered it.

From Salon

Related Words

• card
• cuisine
• food
• table

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.