pitta

American

[pit-uh] / ˈpɪt ə /

noun

any of several brilliantly colored, passerine birds of the family Pittidae, inhabiting dark, Old World, tropical forests.

pitta ¹ British

/ ˈpɪtə /

noun

another name for pitta bread

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

pitta ² British

/ ˈpɪtə /

noun

any of various small brightly coloured ground-dwelling tropical birds of the genus Pitta

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of pitta

First recorded in 1830–40, pitta is from the Telugu word piṭṭa bird

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.

I chose pitta for its transformative, cooling properties, and kapha for its stabilizing, anti-inflammatory ones.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 20, 2025

They ate the same food - pitta bread with cheese and cucumber - as the Hamas guards, her daughter Sharone added.

From BBC • Oct. 24, 2023

Cyprus’ halloumi pitta: Stuff mini pittas with fried halloumi, cucumber, mint and tomato.

From BBC • May 10, 2023

Layer the veg and herbs on the toasted pitta then open a can of pilchards in tomato sauce.

From The Guardian • Oct. 26, 2020

"Wung-go-bah" describes the noisy pitta; "Wee-loo" the stone plover; "Coo-roo" the tranquil dove; "Piln-piln" the large-billed shore plover; "Kim-bum-broo" the fasciated honey-eater; "Calloo-calloo" the manucode; "Go-bidger-roo" the varied honey-eater, and so on.

From Confessions of a Beachcomber by Banfield, E. J. (Edmund James)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023