pretzel
/ˈpɹɛt.səl/
pretzel noun: a toasted bread or cracker usually in the shape of a loose knot.
Noun
pretzel (plural pretzels)
- A toasted bread or cracker usually in the shape of a loose knot.
- When I was young, the best Philadelphia could do in the way of combining music and eating—or principally drinking—was at the Mäennerchor Garden at Ninth and Green, where a pretzel might be had with a glass of beer, or a sherry cobbler1914, Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Our Philadelphia, Chapter 19
- Outside, the little birds on the telegraph wires looked in at the moving picture and smiled at one another. Some even wept. Then they flew down into the street and simply raved over a stale pretzel, ten days dead.1918, Gelett Burgess, Ain't Angie Awful!, Chapter 8
- Anything that is knotted, twisted, or tangled.
- he drew himself up into a regular pretzel of a boy1901, Alice Hegan Rice, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch/Chapter 6, Chapter 6
Verb
pretzel (third-person singular simple present pretzels, present participle (US) pretzeling or (UK) pretzelling, simple past and past participle (US) pretzeled or (UK) pretzelled)
- To bend, twist, or contort.
- They discovered a snake pretzelled into knots.
- Synonyms:
- bend, twist, contort, pretzelize, pretzel up
pretzel meaning in Hindi, Tamil and Arabic
pretzel in Hindi
- toasted bread or cracker in the shape of a knot
- प्रेट्ज़ल preṭzal
pretzel in Tamil
- உப்புமாச்சில்
pretzel in Arabic
- toasted bread or cracker in the shape of a knot
- عُقْدِيَّة ʕuqdiyya, بْرِيتْزِل brītzil
Examples of pretzel in a sentence
- Shape the dough into a pretzel. For my art project, I plan to shape my clay lump into a bowl.
- Mary would flatten the dough before rolling it into pretzels.
- “Ooh, are you filling those?” Eddie nodded to the pretzel bowls in my hand.
Synonyms of pretzel
Forms of pretzel
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | pretzels |
| alternative form (rare) | brezel |
| alternative form (obsolete) | bretzel |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | pretzels |
| present participle US | pretzeling |
| present participle UK | pretzelling |
| past participle US | pretzeled |
| past US | pretzeled |
| past participle UK | pretzelled |
| past UK | pretzelled |
Origin of pretzel
From dialectal German Pretzel, a variant of standard Brezel, from Old High German brēzitella, from Vulgar Latin *brāchiātellus, diminutive of Latin brāchium, bracchium (“arm”); named for the appearance of folded arms.
Words formed from pretzel
Phrases with pretzel
Words that rhyme with pretzel
Questions about pretzel
- What does pretzel mean?
- Pretzel means a toasted bread or cracker usually in the shape of a loose knot.
- What is pretzel in Hindi?
- Pretzel in Hindi is प्रेट्ज़ल (preṭzal). See Pretzel meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is pretzel?
- Pretzel can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce pretzel?
- Pretzel is pronounced /ˈpɹɛt.səl/.
- What is the plural of pretzel?
- The plural of pretzel is pretzels.
Words near pretzel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pretzel (page history and authors); pretzel (Tamil Wiktionary) (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-pretzel.ogg, en-au-pretzel.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pretzel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pretzel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.