macaroni
/mɑk.əˈɹəʊ.ni/
"macaroni" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“macaroni” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #25,127 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #25,127
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - 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.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | macaroni |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɑk.əˈɹəʊ.ni/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #25,127 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “macaroni” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for macaroni is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mɑk.əˈɹəʊ.ni/. Corpus data places it at rank #25,127 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for macaroni, with forms such as "amcaroni", "maacroni", and "macaorni". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "macron", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 god… The correct English form is macaroni, spelled M-A-C-A-R-O-N-I.
Definition
- 1A 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.
- 2Pasta, particularly thicker noodles, spaghetti.
- 3Synonym of gnocchi (“Italian dumpling made of potato or semolina”).
- 4A 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.
- 5A 19th-century quarter-silver dollar coin, typically a full 2-real coin or a quarter clipping of an 8-real coin from Central or South America.
- 6Ellipsis of macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus).
- 7Synonym of Italian (“a person from Italy or of Italian ethnicity”).
- 8Ellipsis of macaroni tool.
- 9Synonym of lizard canary.
- 10A mix of languages in macaronic verse.
- 11Nonsense; meaningless talk.
Etymology
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).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: amcaroni,maacroni,macaorni,macarnoi,macaroin,macaronni,macarroni,maccaroni,macraoni,mcaaroni,mmacaroni
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of macaroni - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "macaroni"?
What does "macaroni" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "macaroni"?
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Using “macaroni”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-C-A-R-O-N-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mɑk.əˈɹəʊ.ni/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “macron” - see the side-by-side comparison. macaroni vs macron
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.