1
Bacon
Cured and smoked pork belly or back — a breakfast staple in the US and UK, with regional variations from American streaky bacon to British rashers to Italian pancetta.
Looking for 5-letter foods? Here are 26 foods that fit — each linked to a full profile.
Letters are counted across the whole name with spaces, hyphens, apostrophes, and diacritics excluded. "Apple Pie" is 8 letters; "Boeuf Bourguignon" is 16.
List of 5-letter Foods
2
Bagel
A dense ring of yeast-leavened wheat bread that's boiled before baking — Polish-Jewish in origin and central to American Jewish food culture.
3
Bread
A staple food made from flour, water, and usually a leavening agent — one of humanity's oldest prepared foods, with regional traditions ranging from French baguettes to Indian naan to Mexican bolillos.
4
Cacao
The fermented seed of a Mesoamerican rainforest tree — the raw material that becomes chocolate, prized by the Aztecs as currency and a sacred drink long before Europeans encountered it.
5
Curry
A broad family of saucy, spice-driven dishes from South and Southeast Asia, now globally adopted, built on aromatic spice blends specific to each region.
6
Dango
Japanese chewy rice-flour dumplings skewered three to five on a bamboo stick — a simple sweet or savoury snack eaten at festivals and with green tea, in dozens of seasonal varieties.
7
Donut
A deep-fried sweet ring or filled round of dough, the favorite quick-bread sweet of North America and a global breakfast and snack staple.
8
Gumbo
Louisiana's most beloved dish — a thick, deeply flavoured stew built on a dark roux and the "holy trinity" of onion, celery, and bell pepper, thickened with okra or filé powder and loaded with seafood, chicken, and andouille sausage; as much a cultural institution as it is a meal.
9
Gyoza
Japanese pan-fried dumplings — thin dough wrappers filled with pork and cabbage, cooked in a two-step technique of frying then steaming to produce a crispy bottom and tender top.
10
Halva
A dense, crumbly sweet confection made from tahini (sesame paste) or semolina, found across the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, and the Balkans — one of the world's oldest known confections.
11
Honey
A natural sweetener made by honey bees from flower nectar — the only food that doesn't spoil, with edible specimens recovered from Egyptian tombs after 3,000 years.
12
Kebab
A general term for grilled or roasted meat, with countless regional forms from skewered cubes to vertical rotisseries — the original fast food of the Middle East.
13
Laksa
A spicy coconut milk noodle soup from Southeast Asia — a fusion of Chinese and Malay culinary traditions with distinct regional variants across Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
14
Mochi
Japanese rice cakes pounded from sticky rice into a chewy, glutinous mass — eaten as snack, soup ingredient, or stuffed sweet across many traditions.
15
Pasta
Dough of wheat flour and water shaped into hundreds of forms, dried or fresh — the foundation of Italian cooking and a global pantry staple.
16
Pesto
A Genoese sauce of crushed basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan, and olive oil — traditionally pounded with mortar and pestle, now a global pasta sauce and ingredient.
17
Pizza
A round of yeasted flatbread topped with sauce, cheese, and toppings, oven-baked at high heat — born in Naples and now eaten everywhere.
18
Ramen
A Japanese wheat-noodle soup with a savory broth, toppings, and infinite regional variations — an obsession in Japan and a global phenomenon.
19
Salad
A cold dish of raw or cooked vegetables, leaves, grains, or proteins dressed with oil, acid, or other seasonings — one of the most universally prepared dishes in human food history.
20
Salsa
A Mexican uncooked or lightly-cooked sauce of tomato, chili, onion, and cilantro — the broadest term in Mexican cuisine, encompassing dozens of regional varieties from raw pico de gallo to roasted salsa roja.
21
Steak
A thick cut of beef cooked to a desired doneness over intense heat — the quality of the steak depends on the cut, the breed and feeding of the animal, the aging process, and the heat source, not the seasoning.
22
Sushi
A Japanese specialty pairing vinegared rice with raw or cooked seafood, vegetables, and sometimes egg, presented as nigiri, maki, or other forms.
23
Tacos
A Mexican staple of soft or crispy tortillas folded around a savory filling — meat, beans, vegetables, or seafood — with salsas and fresh garnishes.
24
Thyme
A small, tough, woody-stemmed Mediterranean herb with intense aromatic oil — the backbone of French *bouquet garni*, slow-cooked stews, roast chicken, and almost every French savory dish.
25
Yeast
A single-celled fungus that ferments sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol — the invisible workhorse behind bread, beer, wine, and a long history of food fermentation.
26
Zatar
A Levantine herb blend combining sumac, sesame seeds, and dried thyme or oregano — sprinkled on bread with olive oil for breakfast across Lebanon, Syria, Israel, and Palestine, with countless regional variations.
About 5-letter foods
That's our current list of foods with exactly 5 letters. Need a different length? Try the browse-by-length pills in the sidebar, or combine with a starting letter — for example, 5-letter foods that start with A.