ciabatta
Americannoun
-
ciabattas
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ciabatta
1985-90; < Italian: literally, slipper
Explanation
Ciabatta is a broad, flat Italian bread that's deliciously chewy and great for sandwiches. Ciabatta is a relatively recent invention, developed by a baker in 1982 to be the Italian version of the baguette. These two loaves couldn't look more different; unlike the long French bread, ciabatta is boxy and flat (though not as flat as focaccia). They're both crusty on the outside and soft inside, but ciabatta is made with a wet dough that gives it lots of distinctive air holes. In Italian, ciabatta literally means "carpet slipper."
Vocabulary lists containing ciabatta
A Toast to Bread
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5th Grade World Cuisine, List 2
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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:
Why fire up the old communal oven when you could grab a ciabatta at the supermarket?
From Salon ● May 27, 2025
Tear the ciabatta into big, rough chunks, about 1 1/2-inches large.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 20, 2023
Spain’s bocadillo: Take a mini ciabatta and add chorizo – simple.
From BBC ● May 10, 2023
She advises against ciabatta, because it’s too airy, and instead recommends dense, saltless bread: “In other words, the bread of Tuscany and Umbria.”
From Washington Post ● Aug. 18, 2022
These footlong hoagies are overstuffed, with the melted cheese binding the fillings to keep them from falling out of the ciabatta bread.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2022
Early technical challenges featured familiar baked goods like English muffins, ciabattas, and tiramisu cakes.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2020
I was like, we’re not doing this millennial-style after-party at the tasteful pub with chicken ciabattas.
From New York Times ● Apr. 5, 2017
Though he was able to claim in his defence that his "ciabattas sold like hot cakes".
From The Guardian ● Oct. 2, 2010
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.
