spaghetti
Americannoun
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a white, starchy pasta of Italian origin that is made in the form of long strings, boiled, and served with any of a variety of meat, tomato, or other sauces.
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Electricity. an insulating tubing of small diameter into which bare wire can be slipped.
noun
Usage
See zucchini.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of spaghetti
1885–90; < Italian, plural of spaghetto, diminutive of spago thin rope < Late Latin spacus twine, probably < Greek sphákos long-threaded lichen
Compare meaning
How does spaghetti compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Spaghetti is long, thin pasta. Spaghetti with meatballs in marinara sauce is an Italian restaurant classic. Spaghetti is a popular Italian pasta, often served with a tomato sauce sometimes called spaghetti sauce. The Italian word spago means string, and spaghetti is the plural of spago — a description of what spaghetti looks like. Spaghetti straps are very thin shoulder straps found on dresses and summery tops. In the late 1960s, "spaghetti westerns" were movies about the Wild West, filmed in Italy and directed by Italians.
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.
Appeared in the May 8, 2026, print edition as 'Stanley Tucci Eats Spaghetti and More'.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 7, 2026
The Scientific Panel for the Global Energy Transition was amusingly dubbed the "Spaghetti" group because of its acronym -- SPGET.
From Barron's • Apr. 30, 2026
Romano’s Macaroni Grill is offering Spaghetti & Meatballs w/ Pomodoro Sauce on its Feb. 14th menu.
From Salon • Feb. 14, 2026
"So many of them were really wacky and wonderful like Cliff Richard hovercrafting along a canal under Spaghetti Junction and Telly Savalas's promotional film of the city."
From BBC • Nov. 8, 2025
We left Spaghetti and walked back to the soda shop.
From "Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus" by Dusti Bowling
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.
