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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

pasta.

Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpæs.tə/UK[ˈpʰæstə]Received-Pronunciation[ˈpʰastə]British, Southern, Standard[ˈp(ʰ)astə]Ireland, Northern-England, Scotland, Wales
  1. Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating.

    uncountable
  2. Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating. Any type of noodle.

    broadly · countable · uncountable
  3. A dish or serving of pasta.

    uncountable
  4. A type of pasta.

    countable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Hellenic *-tós Ancient Greek -τός (-tós) Ancient Greek παστός (pastós) Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)bor. Late Latin pasta Italian pastabor. English pasta Borrowed from Italian pasta (“paste; pasta, noodles”), from Late Latin pasta (“dough, pastry cake, paste”), from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá, “barley porridge”), neuter plural of παστός (pastós, “sprinkled with salt”), from Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō, “to sprinkle”). Doublet of paste.

noun/ˈpæs.tə/UK[ˈpʰæstə]Received-Pronunciation[ˈpʰastə]British, Southern, Standard[ˈp(ʰ)astə]Ireland, Northern-England, Scotland, Wales
  1. A copypasta (block of text which has been copied and pasted from somewhere else, serving as a story or meme).

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Latin cōpiō Old French copierbor. Middle English copien English copy Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Hellenic *-tós Ancient Greek -τός (-tós) Ancient Greek παστός (pastós) Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)bor. Late Latin pasta Old French pastebor. Middle English paste English paste English copy-paste ▲ Late Latin pasta Italian pastabor. English pasta blend English copypastaclip. English pasta Clipping of copypasta.

noun/ˈpæs.tə/UK[ˈpʰæstə]Received-Pronunciation[ˈpʰastə]British, Southern, Standard[ˈp(ʰ)astə]Ireland, Northern-England, Scotland, Wales
  1. Dental filling.

    Philippines · countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Hellenic *-tós Ancient Greek -τός (-tós) Ancient Greek παστός (pastós) Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)bor. Late Latin pasta Philippine Spanish pastabor. English pasta Borrowed from Philippine Spanish pasta, from Late Latin pasta (“dough, pastry cake, paste”), from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá, “barley porridge”). Doublet of paste.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.