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pizza

n.
US //ˈpitsə// UK //pˈiːtsɐ// piz·za
  1. 1 the food in general (n.)
    A1 Beginner Cooking

    a flat, round bread topped with tomato, cheese, and meat or vegetables, then baked in an oven.

    an Italian dish consisting of a flattened disk of bread dough topped with various ingredients and baked at a high temperature.

    Example

    We usually have pizza for dinner on Friday nights.

    Example

    Authentic Neapolitan pizza requires a specific type of flour and a wood-fired oven to achieve its characteristic charred crust.

  2. 2 a single whole item (n.)
    A1 Beginner

    one whole round pizza.

    a single, discrete instance of the dish, often used when ordering or counting.

    Example

    They ordered three large pizzas for the office party.

    Example

    The courier struggled to balance four pizzas on his bike while navigating the narrow city streets.

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  1. 3 skiing position (n.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate Informal Sport

    a way of positioning your skis in a 'V' shape to slow down.

    a beginner's skiing maneuver, also known as the snowplow, where the tips of the skis are pointed toward each other to reduce speed.

    Example

    The instructor told the children to make a pizza shape with their skis to stop.

    Example

    While advanced skiers prefer parallel turns, beginners often rely on the pizza position to maintain control on steeper gradients.

    Usage

    Often used as a command or a noun in instructional contexts.

    • snowplow
Origin

1931, borrowed from Neapolitan pizza (1590), the Neapolitan dialectal form of Byzantine Greek πίτα (píta, “cake, pie”). The Greek word is first attested in 1107 and is itself of uncertain origin. 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”). 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”); From Aramaic פִיתָּא (pītā, “piece of bread”), Hebrew פַּת (paṯ, “bread”). Doublet of pide and pita.

Word family
Idioms1 entry

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