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Jul 15, 2026
This week’s theme
Words with multiple meanings

This week’s words
arete
coprology
noodle
hock
gamy

noodle
Soba Noodle Stand at Night, 1950
Art: Tokuriki Tomikichiro

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noodle

PRONUNCIATION:
(NOOD-l)

MEANING:
noun:1. A long narrow strip of dough, usually cooked by boiling.
 2. The head.
 3. A fool; a simpleton.
verb intr.:1. To improvise on an instrument in a haphazard or casual way.
 2. To muse, improvise, experiment, or play around.
 3. To catch or try to catch fish, especially catfish, by hand.

ETYMOLOGY:
For noun 1: From German Nudel (noodle).
For noun 2-3: Perhaps an alteration of noddle (head).
For verb 1-2: Perhaps imitative.
For verb 3: Origin unknown.
Earliest documented use: 1720.
Also see noodly.

NOTES:
If a fool eats pasta while playing jazz with one hand while trying to catch a catfish by the other hand what is he doing?

USAGE:
“The puppet success during the pandemic took Margolis back to an idea that had been developing in his noodle.”
Dan Rodricks; Children Need to See Fewer Guns, More Puppets; The Baltimore Sun (Maryland); Jun 24, 2022.

“The kid who once noodled around making things has now won the $30,000 Rigg Design Prize at the National Gallery of Victoria.”
Sonia Harford; House and Home Inspire Rigg Design Prize Winner; The Age (Melbourne, Australia); Sep 18, 2015.

See more usage examples of noodle in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. -Iris Murdoch, writer (15 Jul 1919-1999)

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