Word.ws English Dictionary

kugel

Syllables: ku·gelUK/ˈkuːɡl̩//ˈkuɡ(ə)l/

kugel noun: a traditional savoury or sweet Jewish dish consisting of a baked pudding of pasta, potatoes, or rice, with vegetables, or raisins and spices.

kugel: a traditional savoury or sweet Jewish dish consisting of a baked pudding of pasta, potatoes, or...
Image: Off-shell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

kugel (countable and uncountable, plural kugels)

  1. A traditional savoury or sweet Jewish dish consisting of a baked pudding of pasta, potatoes, or rice, with vegetables, or raisins and spices.
    • Many cooks prepare one kugel in honor of the Sabbath. Some families serve extra kugels in honor of a Yom Tov or Rosh Chodesh that falls on a Sabbath. Their idea is to serve as many kugels as there are Torah scrolls read in the synagogue. Kugel recipes run the gamut from sweet to salty, soft to...1988, “Evening and Morning Meals: Menu Plan”, in The Taste of Shabbos: The Complete Sabbath Cookbook, 2nd edition, Jerusalem, Israel: Aish HaTorah Women’s Organization, →ISBN, page 56
    • In medieval Poland, kugel covered a range of preparations baked in shallow or deep (usually round) pans without reference to type of ingredients or elaborateness of preparation. The fancier deep-dish versions of kugel resembled bread puddings and were made almost exclusively for Chanukah. However...1999, William Woys Weaver, “Medieval Recipes in the Polish Style”, in Maria Dembińska, translated by Magdalena Thomas, edited by William Woys Weaver, Food and Drink in Medieval Poland: Rediscovering...
  2. (South Africa, broadly, derogatory, slang) A wealthy young Jewish woman characterized as materialistic and selfish.
    • She was minding her own business, taking a visitor from struggle days in London around the sights of the New South Africa, when she was recognised by a clutch of ageing kugels, out doing what kugels of all ages do on a Saturday morning in Hyde Park, namely shopping.2000, John Matshikiza, “With the Lid Off: February 1999 – May 2000”, in Todd Matshikiza, John Matshikiza, With the Lid Off: South African Insights from Home and Abroad, 1959–2000, Milpark...
    • Yet [Barbara] Ludman wants to take Michelle [in The Day of the Kugel (1989)] out of the "Kugel" category (a Kugel being a "disgusting, dull, boring noodle pudding"—the people in Johannesburg suburbs whose wealthy lives are one long party).2001, Donnarae MacCann, Yulisa Amadu Maddy, “Civil Disobedience and Urban Conflict: The Apartheid Perspective”, in Apartheid and Racism in South Africa Children’s Literature: 1985–1995 (Children’s...
    Synonyms:
    JAP

Noun (2)

kugel (plural kugels)

  1. A traditional hanging ornament of German origin, made of thin glass with a metal coating, usually spherical but also produced in other shapes such as bunches of grapes and drops.
    • Along one wall of the Motts' home is an array of kugels, or glass balls, antique forerunners of today's classic $3.99-a-dozen-at-the-local-drugstore ornaments. However, unlike those made today, antique kugels are considerably sturdier and served as more than just decorations. Kugels decorated the...1990 December, John Morell, “OC Style: Yuletide Collectibles”, in Orange Coast: The Magazine of Orange County, volume 16, number 12, Costa Mesa, Calif.: O.C.N.L., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 60, columns 2–3
    • Lauscha [in Thuringia, Germany] began, early in the nineteenth century, to produce reflective panorama balls or "witches' balls" for window and garden decorations. The first recorded order for smaller, Christmas-tree versions of these thick-walled "kugels," silvered on the inside with compounds of...2000, Karal Ann Marling, “The Christmas Business”, in Merry Christmas! Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 76

kugel meaning in Urdu, Tagalog, Arabic and Persian

kugel in Urdu

traditional savoury or sweet Jewish dish
کوگل

kugel in Tagalog

traditional savoury or sweet Jewish dish
kugl

kugel in Arabic

traditional savoury or sweet Jewish dish
كوجل

kugel in Persian

traditional savoury or sweet Jewish dish
کوگل

Examples of kugel in a sentence

  • Many cooks prepare one kugel in honor of the Sabbath.1988, “Evening and Morning Meals: Menu Plan”, in The Taste of Shabbos: The Complete Sabbath Cookbook, 2nd edition, Jerusalem, Israel: Aish...
  • In medieval Poland, kugel covered a range of preparations baked in shallow or deep (usually round) pans without reference to type of ingredients or elaborateness of preparation.1999, William Woys Weaver, “Medieval Recipes in the Polish Style”, in Maria Dembińska, translated by Magdalena Thomas, edited by William...
  • With the dipsy-doodle, the kit and caboodle / The truth is brutal, your grandma's kugel2004 June 14, Michael Louis Diamond, Adam Horovitz; Adam Yauch [et al.], “Hey Fuck You”, in To the 5 Boroughs, performed by the Beastie...
  • Her chicken and fish, her stews, her meatloaves, her lasagna and kugels and everything else were flavorful in their own, unadulterated way.2013, Elinor Lipman, “Julia’s Child”, in I Can‘t Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin...

Synonyms of kugel

Forms of kugel

pluralkugels

Origin of kugel

Borrowed from Yiddish קוגל (kugl), from Middle High German kugel(e) (“ball”), referring to the roundish appearance of some puddings. Further etymology uncertain; see German Kugel for more.

Borrowed from German Kugel (“solid ball”). Further identical to etymology 1 above, which see. The German term is Weihnachtskugel or Christbaumkugel, but the simplex can be used for short in context.

Phrases with kugel

Words that rhyme with kugel

Questions about kugel

What does kugel mean?
Kugel means a traditional savoury or sweet Jewish dish consisting of a baked pudding of pasta, potatoes, or rice, with vegetables, or raisins and spices.
What is kugel in Urdu?
Kugel in Urdu is کوگل. See Kugel meaning in Urdu.
How do you use kugel in a sentence?
Many cooks prepare one kugel in honor of the Sabbath.
What part of speech is kugel?
Kugel is a noun.
How do you pronounce kugel?
Kugel is pronounced /ˈkuːɡl̩/ (UK).
What is the plural of kugel?
The plural of kugel is kugels.

Words near kugel in the dictionary

  1. kuft
  2. kufta
  3. kuftas
  4. kufungisisa
  5. Kugaaruk
  6. kugel
  7. kugel fountain
  8. kugel fountains
  9. kugelblitz
  10. kugelblitzes
  11. kugelhof

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kugel (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: En-us-kugel.oga.

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