pasta
/ˈpæs.tə/noun
pasta is spelled P-A-S-T-A: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 8.3 times per million words in written English, the 8,036th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, pasta means “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” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pasta is pastas; Wiktionary also lists paste (rare).
How many letters and syllables are in pasta?
| Letters | 5: P-A-S-T-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 8.3 times per million words; the 8,036th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is pasta?
Pasta appears 8.3 times per million words in written English, the 8,036th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce pasta?
- UK /ˈpæs.tə/
- UK [ˈpʰæstə]
- British [ˈpʰastə]
Pasta has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-pasta.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-pasta.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with pasta
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with pasta?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as pasta (/æstə/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: tapas.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of pasta
- pastas plural
- paste plural, rare
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pasta mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
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.
- 2
Any type of noodle.
- 3
A dish or serving of pasta.
- 4
A type of pasta.
- 5
A copypasta (block of text which has been copied and pasted from somewhere else, serving as a story or meme).
- 6
Dental filling.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Pasta in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pâtes, pâtes alimentaires |
| German | Nudeln, Teigwaren, Pasta , Nudelgericht |
| Portuguese | massa, macarrão |
| Spanish | pasta |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does pasta come from?
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”). Doublet of paste.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).