vermicelli

From Italian vermicelli, plural of vermicello (“little worm”), from verme (“worm”), from Latin vermis + -cello (“diminutive suffix”).

vermicelli (usually uncountable, plural vermicellis)

1. Long, slender pasta, similar to spaghetti, only thinner.
   • 1831 October 15, Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, “Introduction”, in Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (Standard Novels; IX), 3rd edition, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], published 31 October 1831, →OCLC, pages ix–x:

     They talked of the experiments of Dr. Darwin, (I speak not of what the Doctor really did, or said that he did, but, as more to my purpose, of what was then spoken of as having been done by him,) who preserved a piece of vermicelli in a glass case, till by some extraordinary means it began to move with voluntary motion.

   • 2021 May 10, Rachel Roddy, “Vermicelli alla Sophia Loren: Rachel Roddy’s recipe for pasta with parsley pesto”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     A favourite old cookbook (and a pile of parsley to use up) inspire this simple salsa verde – parsley, anchovies, capers, olives – in a fairytale tangle of vermicelli[.]

2. Any type of long, thin noodles, as in rice vermicelli.
   • 2013 October 2, Felicity Cloake, “How to make perfect Singapore noodles”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Super-thin rice noodles, or vermicelli, are de rigueur here, but as with pad thai the secret is all in the preparation.

3. (UK) Chocolate sprinkles.

• → Irish: veirmisilí

• IPA^(key): /ver.miˈt͡ʃɛl.li/
• Rhymes: -ɛlli
• Hyphenation: ver‧mi‧cèl‧li

vermicelli m pl

1. plural of vermicello

vermicelli m (plural vermicellis)

1. vermicelli (long, slender pasta)

   Synonym: aletria