Synonyms

tortellini

American

[tawr-tl-ee-nee, tawr-tel-lee-nee] / ˌtɔr tlˈi ni, ˌtɔr tɛlˈli ni /

plural noun

Italian Cooking.

small rounds of pasta, filled, as with a meat or cheese stuffing, and then shaped into rings and boiled: often served in broth or with a sauce.

tortellini British

/ ˌtɔːtəˈliːnɪ /

noun

pasta cut into small rounds, folded about a filling, and boiled

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

See zucchini.

Etymology

Origin of tortellini

1905–10; < Italian, plural of tortellino, diminutive of tortello stuffed pastry, diminutive (with gender change) of torta cake; torte

Compare meaning

How does tortellini compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

tortellini vs. ravioli

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“It’s not ‘Hey, let me show you Stanley trying to ride a horse or roll tortellini.’

From Salon

She taught me how to make pasta by hand on a plywood board and how to craft her famous tortellini filled with a traditional Bolognese sauce.

From Salon

Typical dishes include tortellini in broth from the northern Emilia region, spaghetti alla carbonara from central regions around Rome, and pasta alla Norma in Sicily.

From Reuters

There are so many types of filled tortellini available, even in just a well-stocked grocery store.

From Washington Times

Anthony Esposito, the owner of Via Sposito, an Italian restaurant in Old Bridge that serves spaghetti, linguine, penne, tortellini and gnocchi, said that he could only speculate about where the pasta might have come from.

From New York Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023