paella
Americannoun
noun
-
a Spanish dish made from rice, shellfish, chicken, and vegetables
-
the large flat frying pan in which a paella is cooked
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of paella
1890–95; < Spanish < Catalan: literally, frying pan, pot < Middle French paella < Latin patella pan. See patella.
Explanation
You're most likely to see paella on the menu at a Spanish restaurant. It's a stew-like dish that combines seafood or meat with rice and vegetables, usually cooked in a large, low-sided pan. This Spanish dish of saffroned rice, usually with seafood and chicken thrown in, is ultimately from a Latin word for "pan," patella , and thus joins a number of foods in which a required cooking utensil forms part of the name of the dish: "hotpot," "hoecake," and "spoon bread," to name a few.
Vocabulary lists containing paella
World Cuisine - Introductory
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World Cuisine - Middle School and High School
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Mardi Gras: Food
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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:
The ad giant ferried clients and potential clients by private speedboats to the secluded Saint-Honorat Island, where they enjoyed an al fresco paella and zucchini-flower lunch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
On the day of his death, two dishes on the day's menu were listed as being suitable for a textured diet - beef stew and chicken paella.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2026
Only one dish features rice, and it’s a seafood paella.
From Salon ● May 18, 2024
Gift mom a day of learning to cook pizza, Mediterranean mezzes, Spanish paella, and other delicious cuisines.
From Seattle Times ● May 7, 2024
My mom asked me to grab the fish and clams and mussels out of the walk-in to make seafood paella.
From "The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora" by Pablo Cartaya
Two-tops share paellas of deceptively small circumference that prove to be heaped tall and deep.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 9, 2022
Paella used to be steamed in deep aluminum pots; now the rice is stirred in actual paellas, shallow and as wide as a hub cap, for a more intense flavor and much higher crunch factor.
From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2022
Chef Lidia Fernández Morell cooks world-class paellas on a wood fire; fresh fish and other local fare are also available.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 18, 2021
To stand idly by while millions eat lacklustre paellas is to miss an opportunity to spread a true piece of their culture to the rest of the world.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 10, 2017
Ms. Cámara uses Bomba rice, a Spanish variety used in paellas that releases starch as it cooks, binding the dish and giving it a silky texture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2015
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.
