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savory snack

savory snack

2.7
A small food that tastes salty or spicy rather than sweet
  • noun
  • /ˈseɪvəri snæk/
  • US
translation icon : snack salado
  • For the party, we prepared a variety of savory snacks, including cheese platters and nachos.

Examples

  • Popcorn is a really good swap for some of those really synthetic savory snacks that we we're tempted to buy.

  • Joel Rubuchon sells a Michelin-starred curry bread at his eponymous Tokyo atelier, but the savory snack is available at convenience stores throughout the city.

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  • I love to enjoy a savory snack like spicy roasted nuts during movie night.

  • These crackers make a perfect savory snack to accompany your favorite dips.

Antonyms

1 1.0

A small sweet food high in sugar eaten between meals as a treat

Surface Forms

savory snack singular
savory snacks plural
savoury snack singular

Morphology

savory + snack

The meaning 'a snack that is salty or spicy rather than sweet' is directly and compositionally derived from combining the adjective 'savory' (salty/spicy) with the noun 'snack' (light food). This simple adjective + noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and would be immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.

Etymology

Savory snack brings together savory, meaning full of salty or spicy taste, and snack, meaning a small bite. Picture a small plate of chips or spicy nuts rather than a sweet cookie, and that's why it means 'a snack that is salty or spicy'.