Dictionary

spaghetti en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• spə-gĕtʹē (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /spəˈɡɛti/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /spəˈɡɛti/ (General-American)
• [-ɾi] (General-American)

Etymology

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.

Meanings

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 1298:
2. (form-of, plural, rare) plural of spaghetto
   form of spaghetto
3. (broadly, countable, uncountable, usually) A type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings. ▸ A dish that has spaghetti (noun 1 sense 1) as a main part of it, such as spaghetti bolognese.
4. (broadly, countable, derogatory, informal, uncountable, usually) Denoting Italianness. ▸ An Italian person.
5. (abbreviation, alt-of, broadly, countable, ellipsis, uncountable, usually) Denoting Italianness. ▸ Ellipsis of spaghetti western (“a motion picture depicting a story of cowboys and desperadoes set in the American Old West, but produced by an Italian-based company and filmed in Europe, notably in Italy”).
   alt of spaghetti western
6. (attributive, broadly, informal, often, uncountable, 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:
   • “But the infrastructure is like spaghetti,” he continued. “It’s chaotic, it doesn’t connect up and there’s no cohesive network. If you can get that right, it will eliminate a lot of confusion.” 2021 October 4, Liz Alderman, quoting Mikael Colville-Andersen, “As bikers throng the streets, ‘it’s like Paris is in anarchy’”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 08 Apr 2023:
7. (attributive, broadly, informal, often, uncountable, usually) Something physically resembling spaghetti (noun 1 sense 1) in appearance or consistency, or in being tangled. ▸ Electrical insulating tubing or electrical wiring.
8. (attributive, broadly, informal, often, uncountable, usually) Something physically resembling spaghetti (noun 1 sense 1) in appearance or consistency, or in being tangled. ▸ Roads forming a complex junction, especially one with multiple levels on a motorway.
9. (attributive, broadly, informal, often, qualifier:3D printing, uncountable, usually) Something physically resembling spaghetti (noun 1 sense 1) in appearance or consistency, or in being tangled. ▸ Disorderly strands of filament, caused by an error during the printing process.
   • Coordinate term: blob of death
10. (figuratively, informal, uncountable, 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, Lemberik, Lwow or Lvov. 2014 February 10, Stephen Heyman, “A Literary Tour on the Blue Danube”, in The New York Times:
    • Then there’s payments tech. Over the past decade, private equity has been instrumental in consolidating that industry; Worldpay and Nexi serve as two good examples. 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:
    • 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:
11. (abbreviation, alt-of, derogatory, ellipsis, figuratively, informal, uncountable, usually) Something confusing or intricate. ▸ Ellipsis of spaghetti code (“unstructured or poorly structured program source code, especially code with many GOTO statements or their equivalent”).
    alt of spaghetti code

Forms

Deriveds

spaghetti dress (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti code (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti-strung (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti diagram (compound words and expressions) · sketti · spaghetti bolognese (compound words and expressions) · pizza-ghetti · upsetti spaghetti (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti bolognaise (compound words and expressions) · throw spaghetti against the wall (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti junction (compound words and expressions) · tunagetti · despaghettify · spaghetti western (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti sort (compound words and expressions) · spag · spaghetti string (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti bender (compound words and expressions) · pasghetti · flying spaghetti monster (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti red (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti sauce (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti chart (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti bowl effect (compound words and expressions) · cable spaghetti (compound words and expressions) · courgetti · spaghetti stringing (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti strap (compound words and expressions) · spag bol · spaghetti bowl (compound words and expressions) · Flying Spaghetti Monster (compound words and expressions) · spaghettiless · spaghettiesque · spaghetti pizza (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti stack (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti Western (compound words and expressions) · throw spaghetti at the wall (compound words and expressions) · spaghettification · spaghetti model (compound words and expressions) · tunaghetti · spadinner · vegetable spaghetti (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti and meatballs (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti squash (compound words and expressions) · spaghettilike · spaghetti worm (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti box (compound words and expressions) · spaghetti tongs (compound words and expressions) · spaghettify · spaghettery

Relateds

noodle · spaghettoni · spaghettini

Synonyms

pasghetti · pizzahead · macaroni · pasghetti · sketti · spag · sketti · spag

Translations (130)

uz spagetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ka სპაგეტი (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · cmn 義大利粉 /义大利粉 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · lv spageti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · br spaghetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · fi sekamelska (something confusing or intricate) · el μακαρόνια (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · hy սպագետի (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · arz اسپاجتى (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · tr spagetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · la spacus collȳrae (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · sk špagety (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · el σπαγγέτι (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · nv kʼíneeshbízhiinééz (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ru спаге́тти (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · my စပါဂတီ (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · cmn 意麵 /意面 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · pl spaghetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · cmn 義大利麵 /义大利面 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · bg спаге́ти (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · hi स्पगेटी (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · de Spaghetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · km ស្ប៉ាហ្គេតទី (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · sv spaghetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · th สปาเกตตี (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ky спагетти (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · pt spaghetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · mn шпагетти (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · fr spaghettis (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · sh špageti (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · cmn 義粉 /义粉 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · pt esparguete (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · cmn 義麵 /义面 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · nl spaghetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · be спаге́ці (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · sk špagety (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · gl espaguetes (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · fi spagettiliittymä (roads forming a complex junction) · is spaghettí (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · atj spaktci (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · bg сложнотия (something confusing or intricate) · sh шпагѐти (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · arz اسباكتى (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · cs bužírka (electrical insulating tubing; electrical wiring) · eu espageti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · id spageti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ms spageti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · mi pāketi (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · cs špagety (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · acw سباقيتي (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · et spagetid (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · vi spaghetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · he סְפָּגֶטִי (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · sl špagéti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ur سْپَگیٹی (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · pt espaguete (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · lb spaghetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · am ስፓጌቲ (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · bcl espageti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ca espagueti (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · sv spagetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · fr spaghettis (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · cmn 意大利麵條 /意大利面条 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ru спаге́тти (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · cmn 意大利粉 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · fi spagetti (something confusing or intricate) · jv spagèti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · eo spagetoj (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · sh špaget (something physically resembling spaghetti (sense 1) in appearance or consistency, or in being tangled) · ia spaghetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · mk шпаге́ти (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · fi spagetti (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · gd spaghetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · sk bužírka (electrical insulating tubing; electrical wiring) · fr gaine (electrical insulating tubing; electrical wiring) · yue 意粉 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · hy սպագետտի (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ca espagueti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · bg шлаух (electrical insulating tubing; electrical wiring) · ar سَبَاغِيتِي (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ca laberint (something confusing or intricate) · de Isolationsschlauch (electrical insulating tubing; electrical wiring) · dsb špagetije (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · sh špagèti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · wa spaghetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · mk шпаге́ти (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · it spaghetto (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · sah спагетти (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ja スパゲッティ (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · fi spagetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · cmn 義大利麵條 /义大利面条 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · da spaghetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · is spagettí (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · az spaqetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · nb spagetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · mk шпаге́ти (something physically resembling spaghetti (sense 1) in appearance or consistency, or in being tangled) · nn spagetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ro spaghete (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · be спаге́цьці (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · kk спагетти (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ro spaghete (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · sw spageti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · tl ispageti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · cmn 意大利麵 /意大利面 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · fi spagetti (something physically resembling spaghetti (sense 1) in appearance or consistency, or in being tangled) · eu espageti (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · pl spaghetti (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · lt spagečiai (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · bg спагети (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · ar مَعْكَرُونَة (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ta ஸ்பாகெட்டி (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · mi noke parāoa (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · cs špagety (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · fa-ira اِسْپاگِتی (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · de Spagetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ga spaigití (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · cmn 意粉 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · es espagueti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · it spaghetti (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · hu spagetti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · uk спаге́ті (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · se spageahtta (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ja スパゲッティ (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · bg спагети (something physically resembling spaghetti (sense 1) in appearance or consistency, or in being tangled) · sq spageti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · cy sbageti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · el μακαρόνια (dish that has spaghetti (sense 1) as a main part of it) · yue 意大利粉 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · ko 스파게티 (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings) · vec spagheti (type of pasta made in the shape of long thin strings)

wikipedia: England · wikipedia: M6 motorway

spaghetti en · VERB

Pronunciation

• spə-gĕtʹē (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /spəˈɡɛti/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /spəˈɡɛti/ (General-American)
• [-ɾi] (General-American)

Etymology

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.

Meanings

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, page 3, column 2:
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.
   • "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:
   • 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 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, →OCLC, page 81, column 1:
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.
   • [H]is instrument looked like a Rube Goldberg contraption. It was rigged from electronic bits and pieces, put together with wires that habitually spaghettied out of its grey metal box. 1979, Thelma Moss, “Kirlian Beginnings: Being a Tale of Fortuitous Trial and Error, All the Way …”, in The Body Electric: A Personal Journey into the Mysteries of Parapsychological Research, Bioenergy, and Kirlian Photography, Los Angeles, Calif.: J. P. Tarcher; Don Mills, Ont.: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →ISBN, page 78:
   • 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:
   • Canada's cities are different from America's— […] There are no freeways spaghettiing their way through the town. 1988 October 8, “Survival”, in The Economist (Canada Survey section), volume 309, number 7571, London: Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16, column 1:
   • These four problems, spaghettiing through our minds and bookshelves, make for crippling limitations of literary sensibility. 2005, John Lennard, “Punctuation”, in The Poetry Handbook: A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism, 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 108:
   • The cables spaghettied onto the shoulder of the technician.
   • Call it what you will, but as soon as you think you've got your dish ready to serve, it spaghettis all over the place and you have to clean up the mess. 2006, Richard E[sterhuysen] Grant, The Wah-Wah Diaries: The Making of a Film, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 11:

Forms

Deriveds

spaghettied · spaghetti up

Translations (20)

bg поднасям спагети (to serve (someone) spaghetti) · mk да ја́де шпаге́ти (to eat spaghetti) · mk се за́плетка (to become tangled) · fi tarjota spagettia (to serve (someone) spaghetti) · bg ям спагети (to eat spaghetti) · fi sotkea (to cause (something) to become tangled) · mk да по́служи шпаге́ти (to serve (someone) spaghetti) · sh jesti špagete (to eat spaghetti) · sh poslužiti špagete (to serve (someone) spaghetti) · fi venyttää (to cause (someone or something) to become, or appear to become, longer and thinner — see also stretch) · bg оплитам (to cause (something) to become tangled) · bg оплета (to cause (something) to become tangled) · bg замотая (to cause (something) to become tangled) · fi syödä spagettia (to eat spaghetti) · bg поднаса спагети (to serve (someone) spaghetti) · bg оплета се (to become tangled) · bg оплитам се (to become tangled) · fi sotkeutua (to become tangled) · bg замотавам (to cause (something) to become tangled) · fi venyä (to become, or appear to become, longer and thinner)

wikipedia: England · wikipedia: M6 motorway