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

Mash them up, stir them into soup or stew, toss them with spaghetti, layer them in casserole dishes like shepherd’s pie, serve them as a plain ol’ side…the list of possibilities goes on and on. —Caroline Tien, SELF, 8 Jan. 2025

Lately, Wells said, grocery stores have been investing in their prepared to-go options, with in-store pizza counters and plastic clamshells of deli salads and ready-to-heat containers of spaghetti. —Rachel Sugar, The Atlantic, 6 Jan. 2025

The vaudeville robots are not animals, the cat is drinking from a weird transparent beer can, and the man eating spaghetti is obviously not Will Smith. —Ars Technica, 19 Dec. 2024

Attackers are constantly evolving their tactics, constantly testing how well one campaign works against others by actually doing it — there is no cost barrier to throwing the phishing spaghetti against the virtual wall. —Davey Winder, Forbes, 6 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.