coffee

Syllables: cof·fee/ˈkɔːfɪ//ˈkɒfi/

coffee noun: a beverage made by infusing the beans of the coffee plant in hot water.

Image: Julius Schorzman, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

coffee (countable and uncountable, plural coffees)

(uncountable) A beverage made by infusing the beans of the coffee plant in hot water.
- He and his friends used to order coffee whenever they went out.
- The Turks have a drink called coffa (for they use no wine), so named of a berry as black as soot, and as bitter[…], which they sip still of, and sup as warm as they can suffer[…].1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II...
(countable) A serving of this beverage.
- As I sip a coffee at Brasserie Balzar, two well-known intellectuals, one publisher and a Sorbonne professor were discussing Sarkozy's future: "He won't finish his mandate" says one.2008 April 12, Agnes Poirier, The Guardian
The seeds of the plant used to make coffee, called ‘beans’ due to their shape.
The powder made by roasting and grinding the seeds.
A tropical plant of the genus Coffea.
A pale brown color, like that of milky coffee.
The end of a meal, when coffee is served.
- He did not stay for coffee.

Adjective

coffee (not comparable)

Of a pale brown colour, like that of milk coffee.
Of a table: a small, low table suitable for people in lounge seating to put coffee cups on.

Verb

coffee (third-person singular simple present coffees, present participle coffeeing, simple past and past participle coffeed or coffee'd)

(intransitive) To drink coffee.
- I rushed into my cabin, coffeed, wined, and went to bed sobbing.1839, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Clockmaker
- In the afternoon with Hilda and suite in three Einspänner to just beyond Pontresina; we got out and crossed the bridge over the Bernina to Sans Souci Café, where we coffee’d.1900, Clement Kinloch-Cooke, editor, A Memoir of Her Royal Highness Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck: Based on Her Private Diaries and Letters, page 224
(transitive) To give coffee to.
- The association of veteran firemen, which has a membership of 200, kept open house for New Year callers, and all comers were bountifully sandwiched and coffeed.1897 January 7, “City’s Veteran Firemen. New Year Reception. The Rooms of the Association Filled with Guests. Reminiscences, Reunion, and Refreshments,”, in The Pittsfield Sun, volume 97, number 26...
- Here at Camp Wheeler we “coffeed” and “sandwiched” the drafted men when they came from Camp Gordon several weeks ago, and the men from Camp Pike more recently.1917 November 11, Dumas Malone, “The Ring and the Red Triangle: How the Men Who Wear the New Insignia Go With the Army”, in The Macon Daily Telegraph, Macon, Ga., first section, article section “The...

Proper noun capitalized: Coffee

Coffee (plural Coffees)

A surname.
(abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Coffee County.

coffee meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

coffee in Hindi

beans: कहवा kahvā
beverage: कॉफ़ी kŏfī, क़हवा qahvā
plant: कहवा kahvā

coffee in Tamil

beans: குளம்பிக் கொட்டை kuḷampik koṭṭai
beverage: காபி kāpi, குளம்பி kuḷampi, கொட்டைவடிநீர் koṭṭaivaṭinīr

coffee in Urdu

beverage: کافی kāfī, کوفی kofī, قَہْوَہ qahva

More languagesFewer languages

coffee in Bengali: কফি kophi
coffee in Telugu: కాఫీ kāphī
coffee in Malayalam: കാപ്പി kāppi
coffee in Kannada: ಕಾಫಿ kāphi
coffee in Punjabi: ਕਾਫ਼ੀ kāfī, قَہْوَہ qahvah, قہوہ qhoh, کافی pnb
coffee in Gujarati: બુંદદાણા bunddāṇā, કૉફી kŏphī, કહવા kahvā
coffee in Odia: କଫୀ kaphi
coffee in Sanskrit: पीयूष pīyūṣa, काफी kāphī
coffee in Sinhala: කෝපි kōpi
coffee in Assamese: কফি kophi
coffee in Nepali: कफी kaphī
coffee in Pashto: قهوه qahwa, کاوه kāwa, کافي kāfi
coffee in Tagalog: kape
coffee in Arabic: بُنّ bunn, قَهْوَة qahwa, قهوة gəhwə, گهوة gəhwə
coffee in Malay: kopi, kahwa, kawa
coffee in Indonesian: biji kopi, kopi
coffee in Persian: قَهْوَه qahwa, قَهْوِه ġahve, کافِه kâfe, قهوهای
coffee in Thai: เมล็ดกาแฟ má-lét gaa-fɛɛ, กาแฟ gaa-fɛɛ, ต้นกาแฟ dtôn gaa-fɛɛ
coffee in Vietnamese: hột cà phê, hạt cà phê, màu cà phê, cà phê
coffee in Myanmar: ကော်ဖီ kauhpi
Sindhi: ڪافي kāfe, قهوو qoo
Dhivehi: ގަހުވަ gahuva, ކޮފީ kofī
Dzongkha: ཀཱ་ཕི། kā phi

Examples of coffee in a sentence

Thou art as dull and dumpiſh as a fellovv that had been drunk over night vvith Ale, and had done nothing but drunk Coffee, talked Politicks, and read Gazettes all this morning.1672, Thomas Shadwell, The Miser: A Comedy, […], London: […] Thomas Collins and John Ford, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 1:
The great use of coffee in France is supposed to have abated the prevalency of the gravel, for where coffee is used as a constant beverage, the gravel and the gout are scarcely known.1848, J. S. Skinner & Son, editor, The Plough, The Loom and the Anvil, volume I, Philadelphia: J. S. Skinner & Son, page 137:
"When?" / "This morning, before father went downtown." / Both Selwyn and Lansing cut in coolly, dismissing the matter with a careless word or two; and coffee was served—cambric tea in Drina's case.1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IV, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:

All 40 example sentences with coffee

Synonyms of coffee

Forms of coffee

Noun
plural	coffees
alternative form (rare)	coffée
Verb
third-person singular present	coffees
present participle	coffeeing
past participle	coffeed
past	coffeed
past participle	coffee'd
past	coffee'd
Proper noun
plural	Coffees

Plural of coffee: coffees

Origin of coffee

Borrowed from Dutch koffie, from Italian caffè, from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve), from Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa). Doublet of café and caffè and cognate with the words for "coffee" in other major European languages, most of which are derived from the Turkish and Italian words.

Words formed from coffee

Phrases with coffee

117 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with coffee

Questions about coffee

What does coffee mean?: Coffee means a beverage made by infusing the beans of the coffee plant in hot water.
What is coffee in Hindi?: Coffee in Hindi is कहवा (kahvā), कॉफ़ी (kŏfī), क़हवा (qahvā). See Coffee meaning in Hindi.
How do you use coffee in a sentence?: Thou art as dull and dumpiſh as a fellovv that had been drunk over night vvith Ale, and had done nothing but drunk Coffee, talked Politicks, and read Gazettes all this morning.
What part of speech is coffee?: Coffee can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce coffee?: Coffee is pronounced /ˈkɒfi/ (UK).
What is the plural of coffee?: The plural of coffee is coffees.

Words near coffee in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: coffee (page history and authors); Coffee (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-coffee.ogg, En-us-coffee.ogg.

Cite this entry: “coffee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coffee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.