Confetti
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Small pieces or strips (streamers) of colored paper or other material (metal, plaster, etc) generally thrown about at festive occasions, especially at weddings and in victory celebrations. uncountable
- 2 small pieces or streamers of colored paper that are thrown around on festive occasions (as at a wedding) wordnet
- 3 Edible Italian sugar-coated almonds, especially those which are used as part of a traditional Italian wedding. rare, uncountable
"… a pale and fair devotee of fashion who has left off eating confetti, and recovered her bloom."
- 1 To scatter with confetti. transitive
Example
More examples"When the city was liberated, people lined the streets throwing confetti."
Etymology
Borrowed (possibly via French) from Italian confetti (literally “confections”), used to describe sugar-coated almonds, and by extension things imitating them (like pellets of plaster), which were thrown in Italy during festivities like Carnival and weddings. (This practice is mentioned in English since at least the 1810s.) The French and the English adopted the practice of celebrating weddings and other festivities by throwing such candies, or (by the late 1800s) tiny pieces of colored paper symbolizing them, partially displacing their earlier practice of throwing rice.
Related phrases
More for "confetti"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.