pastille

Syllables: past·ille/ˈpæst(ɪ)l/US/pæsˈtil/

pastille noun: a flavoured candy or sweet, often round and somewhat flat in shape. Also the nonstandard spelling of pastel.

Noun

pastille (plural pastilles)

A flavoured candy or sweet, often round and somewhat flat in shape.
Any small, usually round and somewhat flat, granular piece of material; a tablet.
- Watercolors of professional quality come in small pastilles of dry pigment, in pans of semi-moist paint, or in tubes or bottles of liquid watercolor.2003, The Complete Drawing & Painting Course, →ISBN, page 201
1. (historical, specifically) A small pellet containing aromatic substances, burned to diffuse a fragrance or to disinfect or fumigate.
  - At the end he felt faint and sick, and having lit some Algerian pastilles in a pierced copper brazier, he bathed his hands and forehead with a cool musk-scented vinegar.1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
(historical, pharmacy) A medicinal pill, originally made of compressed herbs.
- In the desperate search for amatory satisfactions, the most monstrous ingredients have throughout the ages, been sought and compounded into electuaries and pastilles, philtres and ointments.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 14
(pharmacy) A candy- or sweet-like lozenge, which, when sucked, releases substances that soothe a sore throat, and sometimes vapours to help unblock the nose or sinuses.

Synonyms:

cough drop, troche

Verb

pastille (third-person singular simple present pastilles, present participle pastilling, simple past and past participle pastilled)

(transitive) To make into a pastille.

Also used as

pastille is also the nonstandard spelling of pastel.

pastille meaning in Arabic and Indonesian

pastille in Arabic

flavoured candy or sweet: قرص طبي محلى

Synonyms of pastille

Forms of pastille

Noun
plural	pastilles
alternative form	pastil
Verb
third-person singular present	pastilles
present participle	pastilling
past participle	pastilled
past	pastilled

Origin of pastille

Partly from the following: * From Late Middle English pastil, pastill (“crushed leek leaves; vegetable pulp”), borrowed from Old French pastel, probably from Latin pastillus, pastillum (“small bread roll; lozenge to freshen breath; medicated lozenge”), possibly from pāstus (“fed, nourished; consumed; having eaten; of an animal: driven to pasture, pastured; having browsed or grazed”) + -illus (diminutive suffix). Pāstus is the perfect passive participle of pāscō (“to feed, nourish; to maintain, support; of an animal: to drive to pasture, pasture; to browse, graze”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect; to shepherd”). * Borrowed from French pastille (“candy or medicinal lozenge; small fragrant pellet burnt to perfume the air; pellet, pill”), and from its etymon Spanish pastilla (“candy or medicinal lozenge; small fragrant pellet burnt to perfume the air”), from Latin pastillus, pastillum; see above. Doublet of pastegh, pastel, pastiglia, pastila, and pastilla.

See pastel.

Words formed from pastille

Questions about pastille

What does pastille mean?: Pastille means a flavoured candy or sweet, often round and somewhat flat in shape.
What is pastille in Arabic?: Pastille in Arabic is قرص طبي محلى. See Pastille meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is pastille?: Pastille can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce pastille?: Pastille is pronounced /ˈpæst(ɪ)l/ (UK).
What is the plural of pastille?: The plural of pastille is pastilles.

Words near pastille in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: pastille (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: 2026-09-02

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

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