cabaret

UK: /ˈkæbəreɪ/

US: /ˌkæbəˈreɪ/

US: (kab′ə rā′ for 1–4, 6, 7; kab′ə ret′ for 5)

Inflections of 'cabaret' (v): (⇒ conjugate)

cabarets

v 3rd person singular

cabareting

v pres p

cabareted

v past

cabareted

v past p

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026

cab•a•ret /ˌkæbəˈreɪ/   n. 

1. [countable] a restaurant providing food, drink, and often a floor show.
2. Show Business [uncountable] the entertainment at a cabaret.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

cab•a•ret  (kab′ə rā′ for 1–4, 6, 7; kab′ə ret′ for 5), n., v., -reted (-rād′), -ret•ing 

(-rā′ing). 

n. 

1. a restaurant providing food, drink, music, a dance floor, and often a floor show.
2. a café that serves food and drink and offers entertainment often of an improvisatory, satirical, and topical nature.
3. Show Business a floor show consisting of such entertainment:
   The cover charge includes dinner and a cabaret.
4. Show Business a form of theatrical entertainment, consisting mainly of political satire in the form of skits, songs, and improvisations:
   an actress whose credits include cabaret, TV, and dinner theater.
5. Ceramics, Furniture a decoratively painted porcelain coffee or tea service with tray, produced esp. in the 18th century.
6. [Archaic.] a shop selling wines and liquors.

v.i. 

7. to attend or frequent cabarets.

• Picard camberete small room (cognate with French chambrette; see chamber, -ette)
• Middle Dutch, denasalized variant of cambret, cameret
• French: tap-room, Middle French dialect, dialectal (Picard or Walloon)
• 1625–35

Synonyms

• 2. nightclub, supper club, club.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

cabaret / ˈkæbəˌreɪ/ noun

1. a floor show of dancing, singing, or other light entertainment at a nightclub or restaurant
2. a nightclub or restaurant providing such entertainment

Etymology: 17th Century: from Norman French: tavern, probably from Late Latin camera an arched roof, chamber