Skip to content

dieta

diet

noun DYEH-tah Rare

Origin: From Greek diaita (way of life, regimen); borrowed into Latin and then Italian. The political sense (a national assembly) derives via German Diet.

Also means

parliament; assembly

Usage Note

Dieta most commonly means a weight-loss or medical eating regimen: essere a dieta (to be on a diet). A false friend alert: in Italian dieta does NOT usually mean 'what you generally eat' the way 'diet' does in English — for that, say alimentazione or regime alimentare. The political sense (a legislative assembly, such as the Japanese Diet) is a separate, rarer usage.

Examples

"Il medico le ha consigliato una dieta mediterranea."

Natural Translation

The doctor recommended a Mediterranean diet to her.

Explore Italian by topic