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 Note that it's not barbecued spaghetti (the noodles aren't cooked on a pit) but rather barbecue spaghetti—a fusion of two popular dishes. Robert F. Moss, Southern Living, 8 Mar. 2024 Jollibee is known for its fried chicken — called Chicken Joy — and Filipino takes on spaghetti (using hot dogs and a sweet sauce) and dessert pies (filled with mango or ube instead of apple). Lawrence Yee, Peoplemag, 5 Mar. 2024 Serve Place spaghetti on plate and sprinkle with cheese, then place salmon on top. Rita Nader Heikenfeld, The Enquirer, 2 Mar. 2024 Vegetarian options: Several, including eggplant parmigiana, and spaghetti tossed with raw tomatoes, herbs and olive oil. Benjy Egel, Sacramento Bee, 29 Feb. 2024 Portioned cooked spaghetti and cooked tortellini at 44F-46F and raw calamari at 45F were holding cold at the cook line. Michael Braga, The Arizona Republic, 28 Feb. 2024 There are the same intense close-ups of grizzly sweating faces, florid musical score and blazing credits that characterized the Italian master’s spaghetti Westerns. Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 Feb. 2024 It was illustrated with an unflattering cartoon of Disney’s board throwing spaghetti at a wall. Stacy Perman, Los Angeles Times, 26 Feb. 2024 Enriched by the agile, near-cartoonish drawings of Morris, Lucky Luke is a comedic Western in the vein of Destry Rides Again and El Dorado, with the occasional splash of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti mystique. Ernesto Lechner, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'spaghetti.' 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

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

Dictionary Entries Near spaghetti

Cite this Entry

“Spaghetti.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spaghetti. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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

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