# pretzel

Pronunciation: say "PRET-suhl" /ˈpɹɛt.səl/

## Noun

1. A toasted or baked bread or cracker, usually formed in the shape of a loose knot.
   - Simple: A baked snack made from dough, usually twisted into a loose knot shape.
   - _The vendor handed me a warm pretzel sprinkled with coarse salt._
   - _Soft pretzels are a popular snack at German festivals._
2. Any object or mass that has been knotted, twisted, or tangled together.
   - Simple: Anything that is twisted or tangled into knots.
   - _The garden hose lay in a pretzel by the back door._
   - _Her earphone wires always end up a tangled pretzel in her pocket._

## Verb

3. To bend, twist, or contort something into a tangled or knotted shape. *(colloquial, Canada, US)*
   - Simple: To bend or twist something into a complicated, knotted shape.
   - _Acrobats can pretzel their limbs into shapes that look painful._
   - _She pretzeled the copper tubing to fit the tight corner._

## Origin

From dialectal German Pretzel, a variant of standard Brezel, from Old High German brēzitella, from Vulgar Latin *brāchiātellus, a diminutive of Latin brāchium ("arm"), named for its resemblance to folded arms.

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