spaghetti

A2 Topic:General Vocabulary

US /spəˈɡɛti/ UK /spəˈɡɛti/ See IPA manual

Freq #6930

Meanings

1

noun
A type of pasta made in long, thin strings.

Her mother was cooking spaghetti for dinner.
2

noun
A confusing, tangled mess of something.

The wires behind the TV were a spaghetti of cables.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a type of pasta made in... spag

Word family

Derived forms courgettidespaghettifypasghettipizza-ghettiskettispadinnerspagspaghetteryspaghettiedspaghettiesquespaghettificationspaghettify

Related forms noodlespaghettinispaghettoni

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

spaghetti squash
an oval squash whose cooked flesh separates into strands

Noun + noun

Idioms (1)

See all

throw it at the wall and see what sticks
Matching variant: throw spaghetti at the wall

to try many ideas quickly, keeping only the ones that work

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Italian spaghetti, the plural of spaghetto (“dish of spaghetti; (rare) 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 . The verb is derived from the noun.

spaghetti Italian spagus Latin σφάκος Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# spaghetti

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /spəˈɡɛti/
**IPA (UK):** /spəˈɡɛti/
**Frequency rank:** 6930

## Meanings
1. A type of pasta made in long, thin strings.
2. A confusing, tangled mess of something.

## Examples
- Her mother was cooking spaghetti for dinner.
- The wires behind the TV were a spaghetti of cables.

## Derived Forms
- courgetti
- despaghettify
- pasghetti
- pizza-ghetti
- sketti
- spadinner
- spag
- spaghettery
- spaghettied
- spaghettiesque
- spaghettification
- spaghettify

## Related Forms
- noodle
- spaghettini
- spaghettoni

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: spaghetti
- Root: spagus
- Root: σφάκος

## Etymology
The noun is borrowed from Italian spaghetti, the plural of spaghetto (“dish of spaghetti; (rare) 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 . The verb is derived from the noun.

## AI Etymology
The noun spaghetti is borrowed from Italian spaghetti, the plural of spaghetto (“dish of spaghetti; (rare) 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. The verb is derived from the noun. Important forms in the word's history include Italian spaghetti, Latin spagus, Ancient Greek σφάκος. In current use it includes senses such as A type of pasta made in long, thin strings and A confusing, tangled mess of something.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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