pasta

IPA/ˈpæstə/
KK[pˈɑstə]IPA/ˈpɑːstə/

pasta — noun

1. food formed from dough, then cut or shaped into pieces such as spaghetti or ravi

1.nounA2
Definition

food formed from dough, then cut or shaped into pieces such as spaghetti or ravioli, boiled, and often eaten with sauce

Example

Dad cooked pasta with tomato sauce after the football game.

collocation: cook pasta with sauce

At lunch, Emma chose pasta instead of rice or bread.

Common collocations
  • fresh pasta
  • tomato sauce with pasta
  • a bowl of pasta
  • cook pasta
  • boil pasta
Synonyms
  • noodles

    a broader everyday word; noodles are not always Italian pasta

  • spaghetti

    one long, thin kind of pasta rather than the whole category

  • macaroni

    a specific short tube shape, not a general replacement in every context

Grammar Patterns

eat pasta

cook pasta

a bowl of pasta

fresh pasta

pastas on the menu

Usage Note

Usually uncountable when you mean the food in general: We had pasta for dinner. Countable use is more common for kinds or servings, especially on menus, as in three pastas or a seafood pasta.

Common Mistakes

We ate a pasta for dinner.
We ate pasta for dinner.
Pasta is usually uncountable when you mean the food in general.
I like the pasta.
I like pasta.
Do not add the when you are talking about pasta in general.

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Pasta is the general word for this Italian-style dough food, whether it is long, short, filled, fresh, or dry. Noodles is broader and can include foods from many cuisines, so it may sound less exact if you are clearly talking about Italian cooking. Spaghetti and macaroni are not full synonyms: they name particular shapes of pasta. Use pasta when the shape does not matter, or when several shapes are possible. Use spaghetti when you mean the long thin kind, and macaroni for short curved tubes. For example, We had pasta with tomato sauce is general, but The child dropped one spaghetti strand is much more specific.

pasta ↗noodles ↗spaghetti ↗macaroni ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • pasta sauce
  • pasta salad
  • pasta dish
  • pasta dough

Phrases

  • cook pasta
  • boil pasta
  • serve pasta
  • eat pasta

Prepositions

  • pasta with

Etymology

GreekLate LatinItalianEnglish

Pasta came into English from Italian pasta, a word that first meant dough or paste. The Italian form goes back through Late Latin to an older Greek word for a barley-based mixture. In modern English, the meaning narrowed to the shaped dough food linked especially with Italian cooking.