In the United Kingdom, supper is a small meal just before bedtime, often preceded by high tea; what a Canadian or American would refer to as supper, then, would be called dinner. However, "dinner" can be used to refer to lunch in Great Britain and parts of the United States and Canada.
In English-speaking countries such as Britain, Canada, and the United States, the evening meal is usually served in the early evening, sometime between six and nine p.m. However, supper customs vary in European cultures. In Spain, supper can be as late as ten or eleven p.m., although this is partly because Spain uses a time zone that is almost two hours off true local time. Suppers eaten outside the home, or suppers served to guests ("dinner parties"), can run quite late in English-speaking cultures as well.
Supper is the meal most commonly served as a form of entertainment, either at a restaurant, as a buffet or potluck, or as a sit-down dinner or banquet. Suppers can be held to enjoy the company of friends, to celebrate an event such as a wedding or birthday, as a community gathering, as official entertainment for dignitaries, or as a fundraising event.
Suppers often include two or more courses, may be served with wine, and are often followed by dessert. The main courses of supper often include meat and vegetables, but usually not fruit by itself.
The term "supper" is derived from the French souper, which is still used for this meal in Quebecois French and sometimes in Belgian Fretch. It is related to soup, a food often served at supper.
Continental French for "supper" is dîner; in Spanish and Italian it is cena, and in Esperanto it is vespermanĝo.
See breakfast, lunch, and high tea; see also Last Supper and the Lord's Supper.