pizza Synonyms & Antonyms

Pizza in a Sentence

a slice of pizza

a pizza pie

Want to go out for pizza tonight?

He ate a whole pizza!

Should we cook a frozen pizza for dinner?

Word Forms & Grammar

pizza (countable and uncountable, plural pizzas or (rare) pizze)

Words That Rhyme With Pizza

Origin of Pizza

Origin 1: First attested in 1931, borrowed from Neapolitan pizza (1590), of uncertain origin. Possibly related to Medieval Greek πίτα (píta, “cake, pie”), attested in 1107 and itself of uncertain origin. In that case it would be a doublet of pide and pita.

Origin 2: The northern Italian dialectal form was pinza, the southern (Apulian and Calabrian) form was pitta. This suggests a derivation from Latin pīnctus (pictus (“painted, smeared”)) or pīnsum, pīnsitum, pistum (“pounded”), but the northern forms appear to be contaminated with pinzare (“to staple”).

Origin 3: There are alternative suggestions involving Greek etymologies (πηκτή (pēktḗ), πηκτός (pēktós, “compacted, congealed”); πήτεα (pḗtea, “bran”); Ancient Greek πιττάκιον (pittákion, “patch; tablet; ticket”)), more remote possibilities involve comparison with Lombardic pizzo, pizza (“bite, morsel, lump, dumpling”); Albanian petë (“layer”), Romanian pată (“blotch, stain, macula”); Albanian pite (“gruel”); Aramaic פִיתָּא (pītā, “piece of bread”), Hebrew פַּת (paṯ, “bread”).