paella

American  

[pahy-ay-yuh] / paɪˈeɪ jə /

noun

• paellas
  plural

1. a Spanish dish prepared by simmering together chicken, seafood, rice, vegetables, and saffron and other seasonings.

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paella British  

/ paɪˈɛlə, paˈeʎa /

noun

1. a Spanish dish made from rice, shellfish, chicken, and vegetables

2. the large flat frying pan in which a paella is cooked

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• paellas
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

paella paellas

Almost 250 people died, while vineyards, orange groves and plots used to grow Albufera rice, an essential paella ingredient, were decimated.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

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

It wasn’t paella, and it wasn’t the surf-and-turf rice you’d find down the block but it carried the same heartbeat.

From Salon ● Dec. 6, 2025

"How about some paella, girls, or camarones a la vinagreta?"

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez

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

Since then, Levante has taken its paella game very seriously: growing its own vegetables in a garden next door, trucking in orange wood from nearby groves, cooking paellas the way they’ve always been cooked.

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