spaghetti

noun

spa·​ghet·​ti spə-ˈge-tē How to pronounce spaghetti (audio)
1
: pasta made in thin solid strings
2
: insulating tubing typically of varnished cloth or of plastic for covering bare wire or holding insulated wires together
spaghettilike adjective

Examples of spaghetti in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Throwing legislative tax spaghetti against the wall isn’t going to stick. The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 12 June 2026 Los Angeles is famously one of the most car-dependent cities in the world, relying on a spaghetti of interconnecting freeways that spread out across a sprawling area. New Atlas, 9 June 2026 Tropical Storm Cristina spaghetti models Illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. Gabe Hauari, USA Today, 9 June 2026 As a person ambles around a sculpture, perspectives multiply; interpretations are born and dissolved; shadows play on the surface and complicate the interpretive field, making hair look like spaghetti or a nostril look angry. Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 8 June 2026 See All Example Sentences for spaghetti

Word History

Etymology

Italian, from plural of spaghetto, diminutive of spago cord, string, from Late Latin spacus

First Known Use

1874, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of spaghetti was in 1874

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Spaghetti.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spaghetti. Accessed 17 Jun. 2026.

Kids Definition

spaghetti

noun
spa·​ghet·​ti spə-ˈget-ē How to pronounce spaghetti (audio)
: a food made chiefly of a mixture of flour and water dried in the form of thin solid strings
Etymology

from Italian spaghetti "pasta made in long strings," from spaghetti, plural of spaghetto "little string," from spago "string"

Word Origin
The Italian word spago means "cord, string." The suffix -etto in Italian, like the suffix -ette in English, means "little one." Added together, spago and -etto become spaghetto, which means "little string." "Little string" describes very well the shape of a strand of spaghetti. The word spaghetti is actually the plural form of spaghetto.

More from Merriam-Webster on spaghetti

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster