omelet

noun

om·​e·​let ˈäm-lət How to pronounce omelet (audio)
ˈä-mə-
variants or omelette
: beaten eggs cooked without stirring until set and served folded in half
Her omelet had a filling of cheese, peppers, and meat.

Examples of omelet in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web On the weekends, breakfast is a hit, particularly the locally roasted coffee and many omelets and scrambles, though breakfast is served all-day all week long. Kaitlyn Yarborough, Southern Living, 18 Oct. 2024 The route: This is your longest day, so get an early start with coffee, an omelet and a tall stack at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House. Dakota Kim, Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2024 Perhaps that’s because the concept itself is so malleable, so personal, so able to expand and contract and nimbly fill the contours of any idea: Success can be as small as making a perfect omelet or as large and consequential as curing a disease. Josh Condon, Robb Report, 13 Oct. 2024 What if the ingredients were ordered as an omelet kit from HelloFresh, asked Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Bart Jansen, USA TODAY, 8 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for omelet 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'omelet.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

French omelette, alteration of Middle French amelette, alemette, alteration of alemelle thin plate, ultimately from Latin lamella, diminutive of lamina

First Known Use

circa 1611, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of omelet was circa 1611

Dictionary Entries Near omelet

Cite this Entry

“Omelet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/omelet. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

omelet

noun
om·​elet
variants also omelette
ˈäm-(ə-)lət
: beaten eggs cooked without stirring and served folded in half
Etymology

from French omelette "omelet," derived from early French amelette, alemette, altered forms of alemelle "omelet," literally, "knife blade, thin plate," derived from la lemelle (same meaning), derived from Latin lamella "a small thin metal plate," from lamina "a thin plate"

Word Origin
Although the word omelet bears little resemblance to Latin lamina, the shape of an omelet does resemble a thin plate, which is what lamina, the ultimate source of omelet, means. The Latin noun lamella, a diminutive form of lamina, became lemelle "blade of a knife" in medieval French. La lemelle "the blade" was misinterpreted as l'alemelle, and so the word gained an initial vowel. In later French, alemelle or alumelle was altered (by substituting the suffix -ette for the suffix -elle) into allumette, which acquired the meaning "dish made with beaten eggs" (such a dish resembling a thin plate or blade). After a later alteration to omelette the word found its way into English.

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