Word.ws English Dictionary

café society

café society noun: especially from the late-19th century through the mid-20th century in Europe and America, a culture characterized by continual socializing in bistros, coffee shops, and nightclubs, sometimes extravagantly frivolous and sometimes intensely intellectual in nature but always high-spirited.

Noun

café society (countable and uncountable, plural café societies)

  1. Especially from the late-19th century through the mid-20th century in Europe and America, a culture characterized by continual socializing in bistros, coffee shops, and nightclubs, sometimes extravagantly frivolous and sometimes intensely intellectual in nature but always high-spirited.
    • Manhattan café society provokes a lot of writing, most of it about as enduring as a café socialite's hangover.1938 Sept. 19, "Books: Caf" (book review of The Happy Island by Dawn Powell), Time (retrieved 26 May 2014)
    • He was one of those who in the 1930's pioneered . . . candid shots of socialites and entertainers out-on-the-town and eager to be seen. . . . His photography became one of the elements on which café society thrived.1988 August 23, Wolfgang Saxon, “Obituary: Jerome Zerbe, 85, Photographer Of Café Society and a Columnist”, in New York Times, retrieved 26 May 2014

Forms of café society

pluralcafé societies
alternative formcafe society

Questions about café society

What does café society mean?
Café society means especially from the late-19th century through the mid-20th century in Europe and America, a culture characterized by continual socializing in bistros, coffee shops, and nightclubs, sometimes extravagantly frivolous and sometimes intensely intellectual in nature but always high-spirited.
What part of speech is café society?
Café society is a noun.
What is the plural of café society?
The plural of café society is café societies.

Words near café society in the dictionary

  1. café noisette
  2. café revolutionaries
  3. café revolutionary
  4. café royale
  5. café societies
  6. café society
  7. café terrace
  8. café terraces
  9. café wall illusion
  10. café wall illusions
  11. café-chantant

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: café society (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “café society.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/caf%C3%A9_society. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.