# pasta

Pronunciation: say "PAH-stuh" US /ˈpɑstə/, AUS /ˈpɐːstə/; UK say "PA-stuh" /ˈpæstə/

## Noun

1. Food made from a dough of wheat flour and water, sometimes with egg, formed into shapes such as spaghetti or fusilli, usually dried, then boiled; also, a particular shape of it.
   - Simple: Food made from flour, water, and sometimes egg, formed into many shapes, then boiled. Also one kind or shape of it.
   - _Fresh pasta made with egg cooks far faster than the dried kind._
   - _The shop sells pasta in dozens of shapes, from tubes to ribbons._
2. A cooked dish or serving built around boiled noodles, typically dressed with sauce and served hot.
   - Simple: A plate of cooked noodles served as a meal, often with sauce.
   - _She made a creamy pasta for the dinner party._
   - _After the long hike, everyone wanted a warm bowl of pasta._
3. Any type of noodle, including kinds made outside the Italian tradition.
   - Simple: Any kind of noodle, no matter how it is made.
   - _The store stocks pasta from many cuisines, including glass noodles and soba._
   - _Rice-based pasta has become common on supermarket shelves._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A paste-like material used by dentists to fill a cavity in a tooth.

## Origin

Italian pasta ("paste, pasta, noodles") is the direct source. It came from pasta in Late Latin, where it meant "dough, pastry cake, paste," and that goes back to Ancient Greek παστά (pastá, "barley porridge"), the neuter plural form of παστός (pastós, "sprinkled with salt"). That Greek word possibly comes from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to shake." Paste is a doublet.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/pasta (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).