tapas

English

Etymology

From Spanish tapas, plural of tapa, with original sense of “top”.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈtæp.æs/, /ˈtæp.əs/
• (US) IPA: /ˈtæp.əs/, /ˈtɑːp.əs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Audio (US, Northern California)

  (file)

Noun

tapas (uncountable)

1. Variety of Spanish small food items or snacks originally served with sherry.
   • 1986, Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet Cooks with Wine:

     The snacks are called tapas because in the old days a piece of toast was served, too, so that you might have a "top" on your glass of sherry, a lid that would prevent the flies from getting into the glass.

2. Small food items generally.

   Izakaya food is basically Japanese tapas.

Synonyms

• small plate, small plates (see small plates)

Translations

variety of small foods

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 西班牙飯菜的餐前小吃, 西班牙饭菜的餐前小吃 (Xībānyá fàncài de cān qián xiǎochī)

• Finnish: tapas (fi)

Anagrams

• pasta
• patas

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Finnish

Etymology

From Spanish tapas.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: ta‧pas
• Rhymes: -ɑpɑs
• IPA: /ˈtɑpɑs/

Noun

tapas

1. An individual item of tapas; mostly used in plural.

   Mennään syömään tapaksia.

   Let's go and eat some tapas.

Declension

Declension of tapas (type vastaus) singular plural nominative tapas tapakset genitive tapaksen tapasten tapaksien partitive tapasta tapaksia accusative tapas tapaksen tapakset inessive tapaksessa tapaksissa elative tapaksesta tapaksista illative tapakseen tapaksiin adessive tapaksella tapaksilla ablative tapakselta tapaksilta allative tapakselle tapaksille essive tapaksena tapaksina translative tapakseksi tapaksiksi instructive – tapaksin abessive tapaksetta tapaksitta comitative – tapaksineen

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French

Verb

tapas

1. second-person singular past historic of taper

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Spanish

Pronunciation

• Audio (Chile)

  (file)

Noun

tapas f pl

1. Plural form of tapa
2. (Argentina) Dough for making empanadas (pastries).

Verb

tapas (infinitive tapar)

1. Informal second-person singular (tú) present indicative form of tapar.