colander
Americannoun
-
colanders
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of colander
1400–50; late Middle English colyndore, perhaps (with nasalization) < Old Provençal colador < Medieval Latin cōlātōrium, equivalent to Latin cōlā(re) “to strain” (verbal derivative of cōlum strainer) + -tōrium -tory 2
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How does colander compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Most cooks would agree that a colander is an essential piece of equipment for even the most basic kitchen. It's a bowl, usually made of plastic or metal, with holes in it to allow liquid to drain away from the food. Colanders are used for draining anything — for instance, if you're washing fruit, a colander would make the job quick and easy. If you're cooking pasta, you toss the pasta into a pot of boiling water, then when it's cooked, you pour the contents of the pot through a colander, and what's left behind in the colander, drained and ready to eat, is the pasta.
Vocabulary lists containing colander
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If You Come Softly
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Moon Over Manifest
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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.
See Examples For:
If you have not got a handy, leafy tree or a pinhole camera, Clough recommends taking a kitchen colander outside to create the same effect.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
"If you hold the colander to the Sun and you look away from the Sun, protecting your eyes, you can make not just one picture of the Sun but a hundred all at once."
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Demonstrating the technique in a video on social media, he clutches a blank piece of paper behind the colander he is holding up.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Instead of straining vegetables and pasta, you can use a colander to achieve a similar effect to that of the pinhole projector.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
If my brain was a colander, Elliot’s was a steel trap.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Those unable to find glasses used other methods, including colanders as pinhole projectors to cast multiple images of the eclipse.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Aside from looking pretty, the pan has a built-in spoon and spatula rest and has a modular design that lets you nest steamer baskets and colanders.
From Fox News ● Nov. 27, 2021
War-ruined bathhouses are dotted around Aleppo’s Old City, their distinctive domes, punched like colanders with round apertures of colored glass, lying smashed, or looking down on rooms filled with rubble and garbage.
From Reuters ● May 9, 2019
Three professional-grade mixing bowls and two colanders make up this Epicurious set.
From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2019
Brimming bowls and colanders lined the countertop, spices and pastes were measured and blended, and eventually a collection of broths simmered over periwinkle flames on the stove.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
