spaghetti

noun

spa·​ghet·​ti spə-ˈge-tē 

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

spə-ˈge-tē-ˌlīk 

adjective

Examples of spaghetti in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Also serving family-size pans that serve four to six including chicken, shrimp and fettuccine Alfredo, chicken parmigiana, five cheese ziti, spaghetti with meat sauce or marinara sauce, chicken scampi and more. —Gege Reed, The Courier-Journal, 9 Dec. 2024

Salt, fat, formic acid, heat In the new study, the team describes making spaghetti that is only 372 nanometres across. —Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 21 Nov. 2024

See spaghetti models for Potential Tropical Storm Sara Special note about spaghetti models: Illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. —Brandi D. Addison, Austin American-Statesman, 14 Nov. 2024

On an expedition to the Nazca and Salas y Gómez ridges, the exploratory dives revealed a host of rare finds, including two flying spaghetti monsters, a pristine coral reef, squat lobsters, and a Casper octopus – the first spotted in the South Pacific. —Erika Page, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Dec. 2024

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

Phrases Containing spaghetti

• spaghetti squash
• spaghetti strap
• spaghetti western

Kids Definition

spaghetti

noun

spa·​ghet·​ti spə-ˈget-ē 

: 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.