macaroni

CEFRB1

/mæk.əˈɹəʊ.ni/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    Small tubes of pasta.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Pasta, particularly thicker noodles, spaghetti.

Examples

  • The smell of macaroni and cheese makes me nauseous.

  • Cover the macaroni fully with water.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˌmæk.əˈɹoʊ.ni/
  • /mak.əˈɹəʊ.ni/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Synonym of gnocchi (“Italian dumpling made of potato or semolina”).

  2. A type of pasta in the form of short tubes, typically boiled and served in soup, with a sauce, or in melted cheese; a dish of this.

  3. A dandy or fop, particularly in the 18th century a young Englishman who had travelled in Europe and subsequently dressed and spoke in an ostentatiously affected Continental manner.

More examples

In context

  • ... the Maccaroni Club (which is composed of all the travelled young men who wear long curls and spying-glasses) ...

  • Take half a pound of small pipe-macaroni.

  • MACARONI... is a preparation of wheat originally peculiar to Italy, in which country it is an article of food of national importance. The same substance in different forms is also known as vermicelli, pasta or Italian pastes, taglioni, fanti, &c.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

For a quick weeknight dinner, she boiled a pot of blank and served it with cheese.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Italian maccaroni (plural of maccarone (archaic variant of maccheroni (“fool”))), of uncertain origin. Variously derived from late Byzantine Greek μακαρία (makaría, “food made from barley”), from Ancient Greek μάκαρ (mákar, “blessed; favored by the gods”), or from maccare (archaic variant of ammaccare (“to bruise; to crush”)), from Latin maccāre of the same meaning. Compare Sicilian maccarruni (“a single piece of macaroni”). * As a fop, apparently from the British Macaroni Club rather than from Italian use of maccarone for fools and bumpkins. * As a former form of currency, used to calque Spanish macuquino (18th-century colonial slang for a similarly clipped coin).