pizza

[peet-suh] /ˈpit sə/

noun

a flat, open-faced baked pie of Italian origin, consisting of a thin layer of bread dough topped with spiced tomato sauce and cheese, often garnished with anchovies, sausage slices, mushrooms, etc.

Also called pizza pie.

Origin

1930-35; < Italian pizza (variant pitta), perhaps ultimately < Greek; Cf. pḗtea bran, pētítēs bran bread

Examples from the web for pizza

Making pizza is a lesson in the beauty of being prepared.
So far no athletes have drawn suspensions, and only a handful have been docked pizza money.
Ask students where restaurants that serve pizza are located in your community and why they are located where they are.
It's a great tale of you blowing out the door of your oven in the name, of course, of research for your book and making pizza.
The pizza was far better than a typical old-school mushroom pizza.
On the other hand, you can get awesome pizza and even a good bagel.
pizza crust, napkins and plastic cups are scattered across the carpet.
One pizza parlor now serves triangular pies on triangular platters.
In the visual illusion slide show the side-by-side pizza tower and railway pictures are the exact same.
Beware of cheap eateries that sport big color photos of pizza and piles of different pastas.

British Dictionary definitions for pizza

pizza

/ˈpiːtsə/

noun

a dish of Italian origin consisting of a baked disc of dough covered with cheese and tomatoes, usually with the addition of mushrooms, anchovies, sausage, or ham

Word Origin

C20: from Italian, perhaps from Vulgar Latin picea (unattested), from Latin piceus relating to pitch²; perhaps related to Modern Greek pitta cake

Word Origin and History for pizza

1935, from Italian pizza, originally "cake, tart, pie," of uncertain origin. The 1907 "Vocabolario Etimologico della Lingua Italiana" reports it is said to be from dialectal pinza "clamp" (from Latin pinsere "to pound, stamp"). Klein suggests a connection via loan-translation with Medieval Greek pitta "cake, pie," from Greek pitta "pitch" (cf. Latin adjective piceus "of pitch"). See also pita.