Word.ws English Dictionary

spaghetti

Syllables: spagh·et·ti/spəˈɡɛti/US/spəˈɡɛti/

spaghetti noun: a type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings. Also the ellipsis of spaghetti western.

spaghetti: a type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings
Image: Choo Yut Shing, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

spaghetti (usually uncountable, plural spaghettis)

  1. (countable, uncountable, usually) A type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings.
    • Her mother was cooking spaghetti for dinner.
    • Maccheroni, or Spaghetti, a smaller kind of macaroni, sufficient for the dinner of an ordinary mortal, generally follows the soup. It is as a rule served up with tomato sauce, and Parmesan cheese thickly scattered over it.1888, Isabella Beeton, “General Observations on Italian Cookery”, in The Book of Household Management; […], new edition, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock and Co. […], →OCLC, paragraph 2952, page...
    Synonyms:
    pasghetti, sketti, spag
    1. (broadly, countable, uncountable, usually) A dish that has spaghetti (noun 1 sense 1) as a main part of it, such as spaghetti bolognese.
  2. (broadly, countable, derogatory, informal, uncountable, usually) An Italian person.
    Synonyms:
    macaroni, pizzahead
  3. (attributive, broadly, informal, often, usually) Something physically resembling spaghetti (noun 1 sense 1) in appearance or consistency, or in being tangled.
    • spaghetti grid spaghetti junction spaghetti limbs spaghetti strap spaghetti stripes
    • Or how about that spaghetti of cables, adaptors and plugs you keep in a box somewhere, the detritus of old phones, laptops and tablets — each with a different charging point — is that not an example of staggeringly wasteful, bad design?2015 October 30, Edwin Heathcote, “Design horrors: the bad, the ugly and the dysfunctional”, in Financial Times
    1. (attributive, broadly, informal, often, usually) Electrical insulating tubing or electrical wiring.
    2. (attributive, broadly, informal, often, usually) Roads forming a complex junction, especially one with multiple levels on a motorway.
    3. (attributive, broadly, informal, often, usually, 3D printing) Disorderly strands of filament, caused by an error during the printing process.
      • Coordinate term: blob of death
  4. (figuratively, informal, usually) Something confusing or intricate.
    • The lands along the Danube, by contrast, seemed wide open. That is, if he could find his way through them. “Arrows drawn on maps build up into an astonishing spaghetti of population movement,” Mr. Winder writes, and a single city like Lviv, now in Ukraine, might also have been called Lemberg...2014 February 10, Stephen Heyman, “A Literary Tour on the Blue Danube”, in The New York Times
    • In an age when the charts have become an algorithmic spaghetti of streaming plays, radio and downloads, the purest way of measuring who is up and who is down in pop might be the Billboard Social 50, a sub-chart that measures reach across social networks.2017 May 23, Gavin Haynes, “Why BTS are the K-pop kings of social media”, in The Guardian

Verb

spaghetti (third-person singular simple present spaghettis, present participle spaghettiing, simple past and past participle spaghettied)

  1. (humorous, informal, transitive) To serve (someone) spaghetti (noun noun 1 sense 1).
    • Visiting members expected to attend, and all will be properly spaghettied.1940 January 19, “Local and General Items”, in The Blairmore Enterprise, volume XXXI, number 3, Blairmore, Alta.: W. J. Bartlett, →OCLC, page 8, column 3
    • Pi Phis spaghettied their mothers and fathers last Saturday evening in the rooms.1940 April 2, Helen Carstarphen, “Following the Socialites”, in The George Washington University Hatchet, volume 36, number 25, Washington, D.C.: Students of the George Washington University, →OCLC...
  2. (informal, transitive) To cause (someone or something) to become, or appear to become, longer and thinner; to stretch.
    • He spaghettied the referee when he landed on him.
  3. (informal, transitive) To cause (something) to become tangled.
    • All these are spaghettied together, as the following boxscore will show: […]1914 March 7, “Bill” [pseudonym], “The Lame Duck: Views of an Innocent Bystander”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 186, number 56, Philadelphia, Pa.; London: Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN...
    • "What makes you think this watercolorist and I would develop a romantic relationship?" Sissy's brow was spaghettied.1976 April, Tom Robbins, chapter 20, in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (novel, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 64
  4. (humorous, informal, intransitive) To eat spaghetti (noun noun 1 sense 1).
    • I have "spaghettied" from Ventimiglia to Brindisi and I doubt if I have ever eaten as excellent spaghetti, certainly none better nor richer, than I have enjoyed in the home of a very charming Maryland hostess.1932, “Foreword”, in Frederick Philip Steiff, compiler, Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland: An Anthology from a Great Tradition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page xvii
  5. (informal, intransitive) To become, or appear to become, longer and thinner.
    • The oldest Lark spaghettied down to a noodle and slithered through the letterbox-like hole at the bottom of the cistern.2022 August 30, Thomas Sanders, Samuel Sanders, “Little K, Fire ’Er Up!”, in The Companionship in A Case of OCD, [United Kingdom]: Sanders Sound & Picture, page 361
  6. (informal, intransitive) To become tangled.
    • The cables spaghettied onto the shoulder of the technician.
    • These elegant instrument pods will bring all the instruments within eye range of the most nearsighted skipper, keep his bulkhead intact and eliminate all those messy wires spaghettiing around.1977 November, Patty Slingluff, “Christmas Presents!”, in Murray Davis, editor, Cruising World, volume 3, number 11, Newport, R.I.: Cruising World Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 53, column 2

Also used as

spaghetti is also the ellipsis of spaghetti western.

spaghetti is also the ellipsis of spaghetti code.

spaghetti is also the plural of spaghetto.

spaghetti meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

spaghetti in Hindi

type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings
स्पगेटी spageṭī

spaghetti in Tamil

type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings
ஸ்பாகெட்டி spākeṭṭi

spaghetti in Marathi

स्पॅगेटी, स्पॅघेटी, स्पेगेटी

spaghetti in Urdu

type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings
سْپَگیٹی spageṭī
More languagesFewer languages
spaghetti in Bengali
স্প্যাগেটি, স্পেগেটি, স্প্যাঘেটি
spaghetti in Telugu
స్పఘెట్టి, స్పాగెట్టి, స్పఘెట్టీ
spaghetti in Malayalam
സ്പാഗെട്ടി, സ്പാഗെറ്റി, സ്പാഗറ്റി
spaghetti in Kannada
ಸ್ಪಾಗೆಟ್ಟಿ, ಸ್ಪ್ಯಾಗೆಟ್ಟಿ, ಸ್ಪ್ಯಾಘೆಟ್ಟಿ
spaghetti in Punjabi
ਸਪੈਗੇਟੀ, ਸਪੇਗੈਟੀ, ਸਪੈਗੈਟੀ
spaghetti in Gujarati
સ્પેગેટી, સ્પેગેટ્ટી, સ્પાઘેટ્ટી
spaghetti in Odia
ସ୍ପେଗେଟି, ସ୍ପାଗେଟି, ସ୍ପାଜେଟି
spaghetti in Nepali
स्पेगेटी, स्प्यागेटी, स्पेगेट्टी
spaghetti in Tagalog
ispageti
spaghetti in Arabic
مَعْكَرُونَة maʕkarūna, سَبَاغِيتِي sabāḡītī
spaghetti in Malay
spageti
spaghetti in Indonesian
spageti
spaghetti in Thai
สปาเกตตี sà-bpaa-gét-dtîi
spaghetti in Vietnamese
spaghetti
spaghetti in Myanmar
စပါဂတီ ca.paga.ti

Examples of spaghetti in a sentence

  • “But the infrastructure is like spaghetti,” he continued.2021 October 4, Liz Alderman, quoting Mikael Colville-Andersen, “As bikers throng the streets, ‘it’s like Paris is in anarchy’”, in The New...
  • “Arrows drawn on maps build up into an astonishing spaghetti of population movement,” Mr.2014 February 10, Stephen Heyman, “A Literary Tour on the Blue Danube”, in The New York Times:
  • And while the logic of creating economies of scale was simple, this created a spaghetti of IT technical debt with disparate systems, which hampered the speed of innovation.2023 March 16, Rupak Ghose, “Can payments eat the world?”, in Financial Times:
  • A twenty-foot ceiling was spaghettied by ductwork and ladders – not library rollers on rails, just foldable aluminium ladders – supplied for those willing to climb their way to erudition.2004 May, Jonathan Kellerman, chapter 33, in Therapy, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 257:

All 40 example sentences with spaghetti

Synonyms of spaghetti

All synonyms of spaghetti

Forms of spaghetti

Noun
pluralspaghettis
Verb
third-person singular presentspaghettis
present participlespaghettiing
past participlespaghettied
pastspaghettied

Plural of spaghetti: spaghettis

Origin of spaghetti

The noun is borrowed from Italian spaghetti, the plural of spaghetto (“strand of spaghetti”), from spago (“cord, string, twine; thread”) + -etto (diminutive suffix). Spago is derived from Latin spagus (“twine”), probably from Ancient Greek σφάκος (sphákos, “apple sage (Salvia pomifera)”), probably from Pre-Greek. The verb is derived from the noun.

Words formed from spaghetti

Phrases with spaghetti

16 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with spaghetti

8 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about spaghetti

What does spaghetti mean?
Spaghetti means a type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings.
What is spaghetti in Hindi?
Spaghetti in Hindi is स्पगेटी (spageṭī). See Spaghetti meaning in Hindi.
How do you use spaghetti in a sentence?
“But the infrastructure is like spaghetti,” he continued.
What part of speech is spaghetti?
Spaghetti can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce spaghetti?
Spaghetti is pronounced /spəˈɡɛti/ (UK).
What is the plural of spaghetti?
The plural of spaghetti is spaghettis.

Words near spaghetti in the dictionary

  1. spag bols
  2. spagbol
  3. spageric
  4. spaghetteries
  5. spaghettery
  6. spaghetti
  7. spaghetti and meatballs
  8. spaghetti bender
  9. spaghetti benders
  10. spaghetti bolognaise
  11. spaghetti bolognese

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spaghetti (page history and authors); spaghetti (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spaghetti (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spaghetti (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spaghetti (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spaghetti (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spaghetti (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spaghetti (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spaghetti (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spaghetti (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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)-Vealhurl-spaghetti.wav.

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