Standard Lemma guide

pasta

noun · 8 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ˈpæs.tə/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Received-Pronunciation: [ˈphæstə]
  • British, Southern, Standard: [ˈphastə]
  • Ireland, Northern-England, Scotland, Wales: [ˈp(h)astə]
  • US: /ˈpɑ.stə/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada: /ˈpæs.tə/
  • South-Asia: /ˈpɑs.t̪ɑ/
  • South-Asia: [päːst̪äˑ]
  • Philippines: [pɐːst̪ɐː]
  • Australian: /ˈpɑː.stə/
  • Australian: [ˈphɐːstə]
  • New-Zealand: /ˈpɑː.stə/
  • New-Zealand: [ˈphɐːstɘ]
  • New-Zealand: /ˈpæs.tə/ broad
  • New-Zealand: [ˈphɛstɘ]
  • homophone: pastor (Australian, New Zealand, Northern England, non-rhotic)
  • rhymes with -æstə
  • rhymes with -ɑːstə
  • CMU ARPABET: P AA1 S T AH0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Narrower terms: macaroni

2

noun

Meaning 2

Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating.

Any type of noodle.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly, countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Narrower terms: macaroni

3

noun

Meaning 3

A dish or serving of pasta.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

A type of pasta.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

A copypasta (block of text which has been copied and pasted from somewhere else, serving as a story or meme).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

Dental filling.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Philippines, countable, uncountable

Topics: dentistry, medicine, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

shaped and dried dough made from flour and water and sometimes egg

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: alimentary paste

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: food, solid food

Narrower terms: farfalle, bowtie pasta, noodle, orzo, spaghetti, spaghettini, tortellini, ziti, rigatoni, fedelline, linguine, linguini, fettuccine, fettuccini, vermicelli, macaroni, lasagna, lasagne, penne, ravioli, cappelletti, tagliatelle, manicotti, couscous, dumpling, dumplings, mostaccioli

8

noun

Meaning 8

a dish that contains pasta as its main ingredient

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: dish

Narrower terms: spaghetti, cannelloni, lasagna, lasagne, macaroni and cheese

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Hellenic *-tós Ancient Greek -τός (-tós) Ancient Greek παστός (pastós) Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)bor. Late Latin pasta Italian pastabor. English pasta Borrowed from Italian pasta (“paste; pasta, noodles”), from Late Latin pasta (“dough, pastry cake, paste”), from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá, “barley porridge”), neuter plural of παστός (pastós, “sprinkled with salt”), from Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō, “to sprinkle”). Doublet of paste.

Etymology tree Latin cōpiō Old French copierbor. Middle English copien English copy Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Hellenic *-tós Ancient Greek -τός (-tós) Ancient Greek παστός (pastós) Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)bor. Late Latin pasta Old French pastebor. Middle English paste English paste English copy-paste ▲ Late Latin pasta Italian pastabor. English pasta blend English copypastaclip. English pasta Clipping of copypasta.

Etymology tree Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Hellenic *-tós Ancient Greek -τός (-tós) Ancient Greek παστός (pastós) Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)bor. Late Latin pasta Philippine Spanish pastabor. English pasta Borrowed from Philippine Spanish pasta, from Late Latin pasta (“dough, pastry cake, paste”), from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá, “barley porridge”).

Across languages

Translations

115 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: makaronat — dough
  • Albanian: pasta — dough
  • Arabic: مَكَرُونَة (makarūna) — dough
  • Arabic: مَعْكَرُونَة (maʕkarūna) — dough
  • Arabic: بَاسْتَا (bāstā) — dough
  • Algerian Arabic: ماقرونة — dough
  • Arabic: معكرونية (maʕkarōnya) — dough
  • Arabic: مَكَرُونَة (makarōna) — dough
  • Arabic: مقرونية (maqarūniyya) — dough
  • Armenian: մակարոնեղեն (makaroneġen) — dough
  • Armenian: մակարոն (makaron) — dough
  • Azerbaijani: makaron — dough
  • Basque: pasta — dough
  • Belarusian: макаро́нныя вы́рабы (makarónnyja výraby) — dough
  • Belarusian: макаро́ны (makaróny) — dough
  • Bengali: পাস্তা (pasta) — dough
  • Bulgarian: па́ста (pásta) — dough
  • Burmese: ပါစတာ (paca.ta) — dough
  • Catalan: pasta — dough
  • Cebuano: pasta — dough
  • Chechen: гарзнаш (garznaš) — dough
  • Chechen: гарз (garz) — dough
  • Chinese Cantonese: 意大利粉 (ji3 daai6 lei6 fan2) — dough
  • Chinese Cantonese: 意粉 (ji3 fan2) — dough
  • Chinese: мянфан (mianfan) — dough
  • Chinese Mandarin: 意大利麵 /意大利面 (yìdàlìmiàn) — dough
  • Czech: těstoviny — dough
  • Danish: pasta — dough
  • Dutch: deegwaren — dough
  • Dutch: pasta — dough
  • Esperanto: pasto — dough
  • Estonian: pasta — dough
  • Faroese: pasta — dough
  • Finnish: pasta — dough
  • French: pâtes — dough
  • French: pâtes alimentaires — dough
  • Georgian: მაკარონის ნაწარმი (maḳaronis nac̣armi) — dough
  • Georgian: მაკარონი (maḳaroni) — dough
  • German: Nudeln — dough
  • German: Teigwaren — dough
  • German: Pasta — dough
  • Greek: ζυμαρικά (zymariká) — dough
  • Ancient Greek: κολλύρα (kollúra) — dough
  • Hebrew: פַּסְטָה (pásta) — dough
  • Hindi: पास्ता (pāstā) — dough
  • Hungarian: tészta — dough
  • Hunsrik: Nutle — dough
  • Icelandic: pasta — dough
  • Indonesian: pasta — dough
  • Irish: pasta — dough
  • Italian: pasta — dough
  • Italian: impasto — dough
  • Japanese: パスタ (pasuta) — dough
  • Kazakh: макарон (makaron) — dough
  • Khmer: ប៉ាស្តា (paastaa) — dough
  • Korean: 파스타 (paseuta) — dough
  • Northern Kurdish: meqarne — dough
  • Kyrgyz: макарон (makaron) — dough
  • Lao: ພາສຕ້າ (phās tā) — dough
  • Latin: collȳra — dough
  • Latin: pasta — dough
  • Latvian: pasta — dough
  • Lithuanian: makaronas — dough
  • Lithuanian: makaronai — dough
  • Macedonian: тестенина (testenina) — dough
  • Malay: pasta — dough
  • Marathi: पास्ता (pāstā) — dough
  • Mòcheno: pasta — dough
  • Norman: pâtes — dough
  • Norwegian Bokmål: pasta — dough
  • Iranian Persian: پاسْتا (pâstâ) — dough
  • Polish: makaron — dough
  • Portuguese: massa — dough
  • Portuguese: macarrão — dough
  • Romanian: paste făinoase — dough
  • Russian: макаро́ны (makaróny) — dough
  • Russian: макаро́нные изде́лия (makarónnyje izdélija) — dough
  • Russian: па́ста (pásta) — dough
  • Serbo-Croatian: тестенѝна — dough
  • Serbo-Croatian: тјестенѝна — dough
  • Serbo-Croatian: па̏ста — dough
  • Serbo-Croatian: testenìna — dough
  • Serbo-Croatian: tjestenìna — dough
  • Serbo-Croatian: pȁsta — dough
  • Slovak: cestovina — dough
  • Slovene: testenina — dough
  • Spanish: pasta — dough
  • Swedish: pasta — dough
  • Tagalog: pasta — dough
  • Tajik: макарон (makaron) — dough
  • Tamil: மாச்சேவை (māccēvai) — dough
  • Thai: พาสตา (páas-dtâa) — dough
  • Turkish: makarna — dough
  • Turkmen: makaron — dough
  • Ukrainian: макаро́нні ви́роби (makarónni výroby) — dough
  • Ukrainian: макаро́ни (makaróny) — dough
  • Urdu: پاسْتا (pāstā) — dough
  • Uzbek: makaron — dough
  • Vietnamese: mì ống — dough
  • Welsh: pasta — dough
  • Arabic: مقرونية (maqarūniyya) — dish or serving
  • Chechen: гарзнаш (garznaš) — dish or serving
  • Finnish: pastaruoka — dish or serving
  • Finnish: pasta-annos — dish or serving
  • German: Nudeln — dish or serving
  • German: Nudelgericht — dish or serving
  • Hebrew: פַּסְטָה (pásta) — dish or serving
  • Marathi: पास्ता (pāstā) — dish or serving
  • Polish: makaron — dish or serving
  • Thai: พาสตา (páas-dtâa) — dish or serving
  • Chinese Mandarin: 意大利麵 /意大利面 (yìdàlìmiàn) — type of pasta
  • Finnish: pastalaji — type of pasta
  • Marathi: पास्ता (pāstā) — type of pasta
  • Polish: makaron — type of pasta
  • Thai: พาสตา (páas-dtâa) — type of pasta
Real reading context

pasta in complete knowledge articles