What does "paella" mean?

A savory Valencian dish made of rice, cooked in a frying pan with vegetables and meat or shellfish.

What is a synonym for "paella"?

Common synonyms include: bouillabaisse, chowder, curry, fricassee, olio, stew.

Pronounced //pɑːˈeɪ.(j)ə//.

//pɑːˈeɪ.(j)ə// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A savory Valencian dish made of rice, cooked in a frying pan with vegetables and meat or shellfish. countable, uncountable
2
saffron-flavored dish made of rice with shellfish and chicken wordnet

"When was the last time you ate paella?"

Borrowed from Catalan paella (“pot; pan”), from Old French paelle, from Latin patella (“plate, small pan”). Doublet of patella and possibly pail.

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