al dente

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian al dente (literally “to the tooth”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æl ˈdɛn.teɪ/, /æl ˈdɛn.ti/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnteɪ, -ɛnti

Adjective

al dente (comparative more al dente, superlative most al dente)

1. (of pasta, vegetables, rice, beans, etc.) Firm to the bite, cooked just right.

Usage notes

• Also used adverbially.

Translations

firm

• Arabic: ^{(please verify)} اَلْدِينْتِي (al-dēnte)
• Catalan: al dente (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 彈牙 / 弹牙 (daan⁶ ngaa⁴)

  Mandarin: 耐嚼 (nàijiáo), 有嚼勁 / 有嚼劲, 有嚼勁 / 有嚼劲 (yǒu jiáojìn)

• Dutch: al dente (nl)
• Finnish: al dente, kovankypsä
• French: al dente (fr)
• Galician: al dente (gl)
• German: bissfest (de), al dente (de)
• Greek: αλ ντέντε (el) (al nténte)
• Hebrew: ^{(please verify)} אַל דֶנְטֶה (al dénte)
• Italian: al dente
• Japanese: アルデンテ (ja) (arudente)
• Polish: al dente (pl)
• Russian: аль дэ́нтэ (ru) (alʹ dɛ́ntɛ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ал денте

  Roman: al dente (sh)

• Swedish: al dente (sv)

Anagrams

• edental, latened

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian al dente.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɑl ˈdɛn.tə/

• Audio:

  (file)

Phrase

al dente

1. al dente

   Synonym: beetgaar

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian al dente.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [alˈdɛntə]

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

al dente (indeclinable)

1. al dente

Further reading

• “al dente” in Duden online
• “al dente” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Italian

Etymology

Literally, “to the tooth”, a shortening duro al dente (“hard for the tooth”), croccante al dente (“crunchy for the tooth”) etc. with the ellipsis being reinforced by the fact that al/alla is commonly found in these contexts to indicate dish ingredients.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /al ˈdɛn.te/
• Hyphenation: al‧dèn‧te

Adjective

al dente (invariable)

1. al dente

   pasta al dente ― pasta al dente

Adverb

al dente

1. al dente

   cotto al dente ― cooked al dente

Anagrams

• dentale, tendale

Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Italian al dente.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈal ˈdɛn.tɛ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Syllabification: al den‧te

Adjective

al dente (not comparable, no derived adverb)

1. (of pasta, cooking) al dente

Further reading

• al dente in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• al dente in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Spanish

Adjective

al dente (invariable)

1. al dente

Adverb

al dente

1. al dente

Further reading

• “al dente”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10