- published: 20 Dec 2015
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An hors d'oeuvre (/ɔːr ˈdɜːrv, ˈdɜːrvrᵊ/; French: hors d'œuvre [ɔʁ dœvʁ]), appetizer, or starter is a small dish served before a meal. Some hors d'oeuvres are served cold, others hot. Hors d'oeuvres may be served at the dinner table as a part of the meal or they may be served before seating. Formerly, hors d'oeuvres were also served between courses.
Typically smaller than a main dish, it is often designed to be eaten by hand (with minimal use of cutlery).
Hors d'oeuvre in French means "outside the work"—that is, "not part of the ordinary set of courses in a meal". The French spelling is the same for singular and plural usage; in English, the ⟨œ⟩ typographic ligature is usually replaced by the digraph ⟨oe⟩, with the plural commonly written hors d'oeuvres and pronounced /ɔːr ˈdɜːrvz/.
"Appetizer" is a synonym for hors d'oeuvre.
"Starter" is sometimes used to denote an hors d'oeuvre, sometimes to denote more substantial courses, known in Europe and North America as entrées.