catering
/ˈkeɪ.tɚ.ɪŋ/noun, verb
catering is a noun meaning “The business of providing food and related services; foodservice” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled C-A-T-E-R-I-N-G and has 3 syllables, and it appears 4.4 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of catering is caterings.
What does catering mean?
noun
- 1
UKThe business of providing food and related services; foodservice.
- 2
USThe business of providing such services for special occasions.
- 3
The act of one who caters (to something).
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of cater
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce catering?
- /ˈkeɪt(ə)ɹɪŋ/
- UK /ˈkeɪ.tə.ɹɪŋ/
- US /ˈkeɪ.tɚ.ɪŋ/
Catering has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Simplificationalizer-catering.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of catering
- caterings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is catering?
Catering appears 4.4 times per million words in written English, the 12,216th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Catering in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the business of providing food and related services:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | restauration, traiteur |
| German | Verpflegung, Nahrungsversorgung, Catering |
| Portuguese | catering |
| Spanish | servicio banquetero, catering, banquetería |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.