pasta
Americannoun
-
pastas
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pasta
1870–75; < Italian < Late Latin. See paste
Explanation
Pasta is any Italian style of noodle, including spaghetti, ziti, and macaroni. Your favorite type of pasta might be fettuccine, especially when it's served in a creamy Alfredo sauce. Pasta refers to the noodle, or to the dish that contains it, like vegetable lasagna or spaghetti carbonara. Most pasta is made from semolina flour and water, and often eggs. The stiff dough is rolled very thin and then cut into shapes or long ribbons. It can be cooked from this soft, fresh state, or (more commonly) dried, packaged, and sold. Pasta is an Italian word (surprise, surprise), from Late Latin, which means "dough or paste."
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:
Goodles’s rise mirrors broader shifts in the U.S. dry pasta market toward healthier, organic and gluten-free options.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Since then, it has trotted out flavors such as Here Comes Truffle, added a variety of healthier-for-you pasta noodles and expanded distribution to retailers such as Target and Whole Foods.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Adds Miyashita: "These puzzles beckon our curiosity. After all, spiral forms in nature have inspired human creations ranging from rotini pasta, to a barber's pole or even portrayals of the biblical 'Tower of Babel'."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 1, 2026
This is the pasta that finally taught me how to shop at the farmers market: Start with a form, bring home one or two beautiful things and give them somewhere to land.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
Eat Dinner—Usually the best meal, as Tío Pepe has to have his pasta once a day, which is my favorite food, too.
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
She’s tried to replicate the experience in Sarasota, by importing Italian pastas and flours and procuring French butter from specialty stores.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
She began to cut out ultra-processed foods, instead opting for fresh fruit and vegetables, whole wheat pastas and oats.
From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2026
Its sprawling, old factory and corporate office in Gardena is now churning out protein-fortified pastas for Angelenos who want more bang for their bowls.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2025
Visitors to Puglia, a major producer of durum wheat, can try handmade pastas in a variety of shapes, paired with broccoli rabe, sea urchin and even a horse ragù.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025
“The pastas are usually pretty good here,” he says as the waiter hands them menus.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
