It’s cut-up raw veggies with dip, right? I first heard it from my mom, who is … not Martha Stewart. Or a foodie. I thought it was a pretty common term. We’re from Wisconsin.
I’m in DC, and the terms is common enough. It doesn’t come up all that often, but I’m pretty familiar with the terms.
I’ve never heard it/seen it before - until reading it previously in that other thread.
Ontario, Canada.
I know it, I use it, and it’s fairly common among the people I hang with. But then, we tend to be foodies of some sort.
Double post.
I think we should be thinking of “common” here as meaning widely-understood words (with very specific meaning), not necessarily everyday words. Like, “diesel” or “volleyball” are common words in this sense, I think, but most people get through a typical week without using them.
ETA: In Virginia. Voted second option.
I’ve known this word for so long I literally have no idea where I first heard it (or when).
So, that could be Minnesota, New York metro area, DC metro area, and/or Chicago.
As I said in the other thread, I wouldn’t blink if I heard someone use it in a sentence. It’s common to the extent that talking about hors d’oeuvres is common.
To me, “common” is my parents. Or even better, something you’d read in the local newspaper, which in most cases is written at an 8th-grade level (we’re not talking the WSJ or Economist. More like the Cleveland Plain Dealer.)
I agree. In fact what you described is exactly what I mean- a word I might only use on rare occasion, yet common enough if when I heard it it wouldn’t give me pause.
See, I think that’s an interesting issue- we don’t even have a common definition for common! 
Billy Crudup groupies. Duh.
Western Canada - I learned the word from the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes.” I believe I’ve heard it since then on various food shows, but never in real life. “Veggie plate or tray” would be the term used here.
Trying to think when I might have learned the word. Probably not from my family, who would most likely have called it a vegetable tray (if they ever at vegetables at parties!), but it was common enough in my group of (central new york) high school friends that we sang a semi-parody version of the Circle Jerks song “Coup d’Etat” involving crudites.
To clarify, I don’t think “crudités” is more common than “vegetable tray”, but I hear the terms used interchangeably. It honestly wouldn’t have occurred to me before now that an adult beyond, say, college age (20-22 or so) might not know what the word means.
I’ve never heard it used except recently on SDMB. I like food but I’m not a foodie. I’m in St. Louis.
We call 'em vegetable trays. I think if someone IRL used it the response would be “Whatju call me?”
Dutch here. It is only an hour’s drive to the French speaking part of Belgium, where I often go to hike, and sometimes end up eating dinner at a restaurant. So on French menus it is a common word. It means a salad, or rather, a tray or plate with a few raw vegetables on it. Usually some cheap shredded iceberg lettuce, a tomato and cucumber slice and some shredded canned carrots. Crudites are served in old fashined restaurants that assume you are there for the main course, ie meat or fish.
Higher priced restaurants don’t offer “crudites”, they offer salads or vegetqables as a side dish or garnish, and specify what exactly you are getting.
I’ve heard it and used the term for much of my life, I would not consider it to be an uncommon word.
Seattle, common. Here’s how it’s pronounced crudites Although, the computer voice adds an “s” that isn’t usually pronounced.
I was familiar with the word, and knew that it was “some sort of hors d’oeuvre-type food”, but I didn’t know specifically what it was before reading the associated thread.
UK, very common here. “Vegetable tray” is unheard of.
I think my use of common is consistant with “A reasonably intelligent person with a good high school education will not have to look it up in the dictionary.” And if it’s got accents and pronunciations that defy the English system, then chances are that would make it less common.
Don’t know what “canapes” are either. Wouldn’t even know how to go about pronouncing it. Among food-lovers, it probably is very common. Among the nonchalant, it’s not common and is bound to elicit a Scooby-Do.
Perhaps this is an area where culture really plays a part? Would you expect to find “crudite” on, say, a SAT exam? I wouldn’t. That doesn’t mean I think it’s obscure or pretentious, but that it is one of those words that even a well-read, highly verbal person would not easily encounter unless they were an “insider”.