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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

buffet.

A counter or sideboard from which food and drinks are served or may be bought.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbʊf.eɪ/UK/ˈbʌf.eɪ/UK/bəˈfeɪ/US/bʌˈfeɪ/US
  1. A counter or sideboard from which food and drinks are served or may be bought.

  2. Food laid out in this way, to which diners serve themselves.

    We'll be serving supper buffet style.
  3. A small low stool; a hassock.

Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English buffet (“stool”), from Middle French buffet (“side table”), from Old French buffet, of unknown origin. The modern pronunciation is remodelled after modern French buffet.

noun/ˈbʌf.ɪt//ˈbʌf.ət/
  1. A blow or cuff with or as if with the hand, or by any other solid object or the wind.

    countable
  2. The vibration of an aircraft when flying in or approaching a stall, caused by separation of airflow from the aircraft's wings.

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English buffet (“buffet”), from Old French buffet, diminutive of buffe, cognate with Italian buffetto. See buffer, buffoon, and compare German puffen (“to jostle, to hustle”).

verb/ˈbʌf.ɪt//ˈbʌf.ət/
  1. To strike with a buffet; to cuff; to slap.

    transitive
  2. To aggressively challenge, denounce, or criticise.

    figuratively · transitive
  3. To affect as with blows; to strike repeatedly; to strive with or contend against.

    to buffet the billows
  4. To deaden the sound of (bells) by muffling the clapper.

  5. To struggle, contend; also in figurative or extended use: to move as if driven by force.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English buffeten, from Old French buffeter, from the noun (see above).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.