pasta
/ˈpæs.tə/
"pasta" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pasta” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,072 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,072
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating.
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 | pasta |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpæs.tə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #8,072 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pasta” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pasta is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpæs.tə/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,072 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for pasta, with forms such as "apsta", "pasat", and "passta". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pat", "PSA", "PST", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Italian pasta (“paste; pasta, noodles”), from Late Latin pasta (“dough, pastry cake, paste”), from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá, “barley porridge”), neuter plural of παστός (pastós, “sprinkled with salt”), from Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō, “to sp… The correct English form is pasta, spelled P-A-S-T-A.
Definition
- 1Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating.
- 2Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating.
- 3A dish or serving of pasta.
- 4A type of pasta.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian pasta (“paste; pasta, noodles”), from Late Latin pasta (“dough, pastry cake, paste”), from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá, “barley porridge”), neuter plural of παστός (pastós, “sprinkled with salt”), from Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō, “to sprinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₁t- (“to shake”). Doublet of paste. Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kweh₁t-der. Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tós Ancient Greek -τός (-tós) Ancient Greek παστός (pastós) Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)bor. Late Latin pasta Italian pastabor. English pasta
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: apsta,pasat,passta,pastta,patsa,ppasta,psata
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pasta - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Using “pasta”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-S-T-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpæs.tə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pat” - see the side-by-side comparison. pasta vs pat
- 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.