dinner
dinner Lexical Profile
dinner Game Scores & Validity
• noun
The main meal of the day, traditionally eaten in the evening but sometimes taken around midday.
"We usually sit down together at the table to eat dinner by six o'clock."
The food that is prepared and intended to be eaten for the main meal.
"I left your dinner in the oven so it would stay warm until you got home."
A formal evening banquet or social gathering centered around a lavish meal.
"The university hosted an elegant charity dinner to raise funds for the new library."
Word Nuance & Usage
Depending on regional dialect and social class (especially in the UK and parts of North America), 'dinner' can refer either to the midday meal or the evening meal, which occasionally causes scheduling confusion.
• Rhymes for dinner
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old French 'disner' (to break fast), ultimately derived from the Vulgar Latin '*disjejunare' (to stop fasting).
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.