Esophageal cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of digestive tract with high malignant degree poor prognosis and serious disease burden. Dietary factors play an important role in the occurrence and development of esophageal cancer. Current research has extensively explored the relationship between individual food groups or nutrients and the risk of esophageal cancer. However there may be synergistic or antagonistic effects among various food groups or nutrients during physiological metabolism. Therefore considering dietary factors from the perspective of dietary patterns can better reflect the overall effect and is more easily translated into guideline recommendations. This approach holds greater practical significance for the primary prevention of esophageal cancer. This paper provided an overview of the methods used to construct dietary patterns in research on the risk of esophageal cancer including a priori a posteriori and hybrid approaches. It also summarized the recent findings on the association between dietary patterns and esophageal cancer and elucidated the potential underlying mechanisms. Healthy dietary patterns characterized by vegetables fruits whole grains and legumes such as plant-based dietary pattern Mediterranean diet and healthy diet index were found to be associated with reduced risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Dietary patterns characterized by red meat processed meat refined grains or inflammatory dietary patterns may increase the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and esophageal adenocarcinoma. This review may provide scientific references for future research in this field.