Colander

//ˈkɑləndɚ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A bowl-shaped kitchen utensil with holes in it used for draining food that has been cooking in water, such as pasta.

    "An electric fire came next, followed by an umbrella and then a colander. "This bowl will carry no water," he muttered. "Some loon hath pierced it with holes.""

  2. 2
    bowl-shaped strainer; used to wash or drain foods wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bolterclarifiercradlecribblecribriformitycribrosity

Example

More examples

"No, you may not put the colander on your head; you can be an astronaut after I drain the pasta."

Etymology

From Middle English colyndore, coloundour, colonur, variants of Middle English culdor, culdore, culatre, ultimately from Latin cōlātōrium, from Latin cōlum. Cognates include Italian colino and Spanish colador.

Related phrases

sea colander

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.