Word.ws English Dictionary

idli

idli noun: a South Asian cake made from a mixture of ground rice and lentils fermented and steamed in a mold.

idli: a South Asian cake made from a mixture of ground rice and lentils fermented and steamed in a mold
Image: J I G I S H A a.k.a Nitin Badhwar, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

idli (plural idlis)

  1. A South Asian cake made from a mixture of ground rice and lentils fermented and steamed in a mold.
    • “My aunty will probably send you a million idlis, too, once I tell her you ate all of mine.”2020, N. K. Jemisin, The City We Became, Orbit, page 414

idli meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

idli in Hindi

Translations
इडली iḍlī

idli in Tamil

Translations
இட்லி iṭli

idli in Marathi

Translations
इडली iḍlī

idli in Urdu

Translations
اڈلی
More languagesFewer languages
idli in Telugu
ఇడ్లి iḍli
idli in Malayalam
ഇഡലി iḍali
idli in Kannada
ಇಡ್ಲಿ iḍli
idli in Gujarati
ઈડલી īḍalī
idli in Sanskrit
इड्डरिका iḍḍarikā

Forms of idli

pluralidlis

Origin of idli

From Tamil இட்லி (iṭli), Kannada ಇಡ್ಲಿ (iḍli).

Questions about idli

What does idli mean?
Idli means a South Asian cake made from a mixture of ground rice and lentils fermented and steamed in a mold.
What is idli in Hindi?
Idli in Hindi is इडली (iḍlī). See Idli meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is idli?
Idli is a noun.
What is the plural of idli?
The plural of idli is idlis.

Words near idli in the dictionary

  1. idleth
  2. idleton
  3. idletons
  4. Idlewild
  5. IDLH
  6. idli
  7. idli podi
  8. Idlib
  9. idlike
  10. idlily
  11. idling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: idli (page history and authors); ഇഡലി (Malayalam) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sumxr-idli.wav.

Cite this entry: “idli.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/idli. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.