masala
/məˈsɑːlə/
masala noun: any of many blends of spices used in Indian cuisine, most often containing cardamom, coriander, mace together with pepper, nutmeg, fennel seeds, jeera etc.
Noun
masala (countable and uncountable, plural masalas or masale)
- Any of many blends of spices used in Indian cuisine, most often containing cardamom, coriander, mace together with pepper, nutmeg, fennel seeds, jeera etc.
- A couple of vegetables, sambar (spicy and sour lentils and vegetables boiled with masalas and spices), rasam (a hot and fiery lentil soup-like dish) and curds (yoghurt) served with heaps of rice and eaten in that order. […] Basically, it’s a juicy naan bread with an egg coating, stuffed with mutton...2017 July 12, Sanjiv Khamgaonkar, “40 Mumbai foods we can’t live without”, in CNN
- When she cooked, she reached out for bottles and masalas without glancing up.2020, Avni Doshi, Burnt Sugar, Hamish Hamilton, page 3
- Any dish prepared with such spices.
- We ordered two lamb bhunas and a masala.
- Any powder of ground ingredients, not necessarily used in cuisine.
masala meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
masala in Hindi
- masala
- मसाला masālā
masala in Tamil
- masala, mixed condiments and spices ; curry stuff
- மசாலா macālā
masala in Urdu
- masala
- مصالحہ masāliha
masala in Bengali
- masala
- মশলা mośla
More languagesFewer languages
- masala in Malayalam
- മസാല masāla
- masala in Punjabi
- مصالحہ maṣāliḥah
- masala in Gujarati
- મસાલો masālo
- masala in Assamese
- মচলা mosola
Forms of masala
| plural | masalas |
|---|---|
| plural | masale |
| alternative form (obsolete) | mussalla |
Origin of masala
Borrowed from Hindustani مصالحہ (maṣālḥa, maṣāliḥa) / मसाला (masālā, “spice(s)”), from Classical Persian مصالح (masālih, “affairs, materials, spices”), plural of مصلحت (maṣlaḥat, “affair, policy, best thing to do”), both from Arabic, derived from صَلَحَ (ṣalaḥa, “be fit, competent, usable”).
Words formed from masala
Phrases with masala
Words that rhyme with masala
Questions about masala
- What does masala mean?
- Masala means any of many blends of spices used in Indian cuisine, most often containing cardamom, coriander, mace together with pepper, nutmeg, fennel seeds, jeera etc.
- What is masala in Hindi?
- Masala in Hindi is मसाला (masālā). See Masala meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is masala?
- Masala is a noun.
- How do you pronounce masala?
- Masala is pronounced /məˈsɑːlə/.
- What is the plural of masala?
- The plural of masala is masalas.
Words near masala in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: masala (page history and authors); मसाला (Hindi) (page history and authors); மசாலா (Tamil) (page history and authors); مصالحہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); মশলা (Bengali) (page history and authors); മസാല (Malayalam) (page history and authors); مصالحہ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); મસાલો (Gujarati) (page history and authors); মচলা (Assamese) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-masala.wav.
Cite this entry: “masala.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/masala. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.