# noodle

> English word · Noun · IPA [ˈnuː.dl̩] · frequency rank #16,761

## Definitions
1. A string or flat strip of pasta or other dough, usually cooked (at least initially) by boiling, and served in soup or in a dry form mixed with a sauce and other ingredients.
2. An object which is long and thin like a noodle (sense 1).
3. An object which is long and thin like a noodle (sense 1).
4. A dumpling cooked by boiling and served in soup; a knaidel or knödel.
5. The penis.
6. A long and slender dragon, usually an eastern dragon.
7. A borzoi dog.

## Etymology
Borrowed from Dutch noedel (“noodle”), or from its etymon German Nudel (“piece of pasta, noodle”); further etymology uncertain, probably a variant of Knödel (“dumpling”), from Middle High German knödel (“dumpling; small knot”), and then either:
* from knode, knote (“knot”) (from Old High German knodo, knoto (“knot”), perhaps ultimately related to Proto-West Germanic *knappō (“knob; boy”)) + -el (diminutive suffix); or
* from Ladin menùdli (“small dough dumpling in soup”), probably from Latin minutulus (“very small, tiny”) (in the sense of food chopped into small pieces), a diminutive of minūtus (“diminished; having been diminished”), the perfect passive participle of minuō (“to make smaller, diminish, lessen, reduce”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“little, small”).
Cognates
* French nouille, noudle, nudeln
* Swedish nudel

## Easily confused with
- **noone** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/noodle-vs-noone)
- **noose** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/noodle-vs-noose)
- **nozzle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/noodle-vs-nozzle)
- **noodles** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/noodle-vs-noodles)
- **node** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/node-vs-noodle)
- **noble** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/noble-vs-noodle)
- **needle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/needle-vs-noodle)
- **Noelle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/noelle-vs-noodle)

## Common misspellings (8)
`nnoodle`, `nodle`, `nodole`, `nooddle`, `noodel`, `noodlle`, `noolde`, `onodle`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/noodle