pastrami

American  

[puh-strah-mee] / pəˈstrɑ mi /

noun

1. a brisket of beef that has been cured in a mixture of garlic, peppercorns, sugar, coriander seeds, etc., then smoked before cooking.

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pastrami British  

/ pəˈstrɑːmɪ /

noun

1. highly seasoned smoked beef, esp prepared from a shoulder cut

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Etymology

Origin of pastrami

1935–40; < Yiddish pastrame < Romanian pastramă pressed, cured meat; a Balkanism of uncertain origin (compare Modern Greek pastramâs, Serbo-Croatian pȁstrma ), perhaps ultimately < Turkish pastιrma, taken as variant of bastιrma, equivalent to bastιr-, causative stem of bas- press, squeeze + -ma verbal noun suffix

Example Sentences

Mr. Margolick recounts Caesar eating four pastrami sandwiches in one sitting.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025

They’ve recently embraced a unique kind of street style — one that’s emblazoned with logos of famous delicatessens and their most popular offerings, like knishes, pastrami, pickles and bagels.

From Salon • Oct. 8, 2023

Metropolitan Diary: What’s a vegetarian doing in a pastrami palace?

From New York Times • Jun. 19, 2023

For an article on deli sandwiches, she collected 104 corned beef and pastrami samples in one day to evaluate the meat and sandwich-building techniques.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 7, 2023

In a normal world, Dad would be ordering a double pastrami on rye while I got the ham and cheese with no tomato, no onion, and no lettuce.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller