mozzarella

Borrowed from Italian mozzarella, from mozzare (“to cut off”), from Latin mutilare.
The meaning of money derives from the early Bay Area hip-hop scene since early and is found for various food terms, including cheddar and cheese.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɒt.səˈɹɛl.ə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mɑt.səˈɹɛl.ə/, less commonly IPA^(key): /mʌt.səˈɹɛl.ə/, /mut.səˈɹɛl.ə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlə

The /mu/-initial pronunciation is borrowed from Neapolitan muzzarella.

mozzarella (countable and uncountable, plural mozzarellas or mozzarelle)

2. Soft Italian or Italian-style cheese made from cow's or buffalo's milk and commonly used as a pizza topping and in salads etc.

   Hypernyms: cheese < dairy product < food

4. (uncountable, slang, African-American Vernacular) Money.

   Synonyms: cheese, cheddar; see also Thesaurus:money

   • 2017 November 16, KirbLaGoop, “I Can’t Feel My Face”, in Trapped in Da 100:

     Ooh, yeah, stack that mozzarella, check a big bag / Smack it for an hour, off a thirty, let a bitch bad

   • 2018 November 25, “Bank Teller”, Lil Uzi Vert (lyrics), Lil Uzi Vert, Smokepurpp, and Lil Pump (music)‎^[1]:

     Me no rat, I get hella cheddar, I get mozzarella / Take two hundred thousand out the bank ’cause I fucked the teller

   • 2018 November 25, “Bank Teller”, Smokepurpp (lyrics), Lil Uzi Vert, Smokepurpp, and Lil Pump (music)‎^[2]:

     Tell a bank teller / This Louis my sweater / Came through with a Baretta / Stack my cheese, that mozzarella

   • 2019 September 13, “Diamond Tester”, in ChaseTheMoney (lyrics), K$upreme & ChaseTheMoney (music), Caught Fire‎^[3]:

     I need the cheese, mozzarella / Rainin outside, I got a Louis umbrella / She ate up my dick like Nutella / I used to be four-fourin at the bank

• mozzarella stick
• cheddarella

• IPA^(key): [ˈmozarɛla]

mozzarella f

1. mozzarella (soft Italian cheese)

Italian mozzarella

• IPA^(key): /ˈmotsɑrelːɑ/, [ˈmo̞ts̠ɑ̝ˌre̞lːɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -elːɑ
• Syllabification^(key): moz‧za‧rel‧la
• Hyphenation^(key): moz‧za‧rel‧la

mozzarella

1. mozzarella (type of cheese)

Diminutive of mozza (“a type of cheese”), related to the verb mozzare. Originally of southern Italian origin; cf. Neapolitan muzzarella.

• IPA^(key): /mot.t͡saˈrɛl.la/
• Rhymes: -ɛlla
• Hyphenation: moz‧za‧rèl‧la

mozzarella f (plural mozzarelle)

1. mozzarella (soft Italian cheese)

• mozzarella di bufala
• mozzarella in carrozza

• burrata

Unadapted borrowing from Italian mozzarella.

• IPA^(key): /mɔ.t͡saˈrɛl.la/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlla
• Syllabification: mo‧zza‧rel‧la

mozzarella f

1. mozzarella (soft Italian cheese)

• mozzarella in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• mozzarella in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from Italian mozzarella.

• Rhymes: -ɛlɐ

mozzarella f (countable and uncountable, plural mozzarellas)

1. alternative form of mozarela

• “mozzarella”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “mozzarella”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “mozzarella”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Unadapted borrowing from Italian mozzarella.

mozzarella f (uncountable)

1. mozzarella (soft Italian cheese)

• muzzarella, muzzarela, musarela (Argentina)

Unadapted borrowing from Italian mozzarella.

• IPA^(key): /motsaˈɾela/ [mot̪.saˈɾe.la]
• Rhymes: -ela
• Syllabification: moz‧za‧re‧lla

mozzarella f (plural mozzarellas)

1. mozzarella (soft Italian cheese)

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

• “mozzarella”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

• Audio:

  (file)

mozzarella c

1. mozzarella

   Synonym: mozzarellaost

• mozzarella in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• mozzarella in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)