Did you know?
The word calamari was borrowed into English from 17th-century Italian, where it functioned as the plural of "calamaro" or "calamaio." The Italian word, in turn, comes from the Medieval Latin noun calamarium, meaning "ink pot or "pen case," and can be ultimately traced back to Latin calamus, meaning "reed pen." The transition from pens and ink to squid is not surprising, given the inky substance that a squid ejects and the long tapered shape of the squid's body. English speakers have also adopted "calamus" itself as a word referring to both a reed pen and to a number of plants.
Examples of calamari in a Sentence
Rosalyn Wikeley, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Jan. 2026
The menu includes hearty dishes like chicken Parmigiana, spaghetti and meatballs, and a New York strip alongside lighter options like shrimp cocktail; calamari, shrimp, lobster and crab in citronette; and a California salad with mangoes, tomatoes, cucumbers and avocado.
—Sarah Blaskovich, Dallas Morning News, 8 Jan. 2026
Starters range from calamari to deviled egg flights to a salmon and crab cake stack.
—Janice Phelan, Kansas City Star, 27 Dec. 2025
The menu features butterfly Mediterranean sea bass; pan-seared salmon with green peppercorn and dijon mustard cream; and bigoli pescatore (jumbo lump crab meat, clams, shrimp, calamari, octopus, branzino, spicy house tomato sauce and squid-ink pasta).
—Matt Leclercq, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 19 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for calamari
Cite this Entry
“Calamari.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/calamari. Accessed 30 Jan. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
calamari
noun
