Cosa significa questa parola?

Yes. Cosa means what here.

In Italian, both cosa and che cosa can mean what in questions:

• Cosa significa questa parola?
• Che cosa significa questa parola?

Both are natural. Che cosa can sound a little fuller or slightly more explicit, but in everyday Italian, cosa alone is very common.

Significa is the third-person singular present tense of significare, which means to mean.

So literally, the sentence is structured like:

• Cosa = what
• significa = means
• questa parola = this word

Very literally: What means this word?
Natural English: What does this word mean?

Italian does not need a separate helper verb like does in this sentence.

Because Italian forms questions differently from English.

In English, you often need do/does/did to make questions:

• What does this word mean?

In Italian, you usually do not add an extra auxiliary like that. You simply use the normal verb form:

• Cosa significa questa parola?

So significa already carries the meaning means; no separate word for does is needed.

Questa parola means this word.

It has two parts:

• questa = this
• parola = word

Questa is a demonstrative adjective, and it must agree with the noun it describes.

Since parola is:

• feminine
• singular

the correct form is questa.

Compare:

• questa parola = this word
• questo libro = this book
• queste parole = these words
• questi libri = these books

Because parola is a feminine singular noun.

Italian adjectives and demonstratives agree with the noun’s gender and number. So:

• questo = masculine singular
• questa = feminine singular
• questi = masculine plural
• queste = feminine plural

Since parola is feminine singular, you must say questa parola.

Yes, absolutely. That is a very common alternative.

These are both correct:

• Cosa significa questa parola?
• Che cosa significa questa parola?

They mean the same thing. A learner can safely use either one.

You may also hear:

• Cosa vuol dire questa parola?
• Che cosa vuol dire questa parola?

Those also mean What does this word mean?

Both can be used to ask about meaning.

• Cosa significa questa parola?
• Cosa vuol dire questa parola?

Both mean What does this word mean?

A rough difference:

• significare is a bit more directly tied to to signify / to mean
• voler dire is extremely common in everyday speech and often feels very natural in conversation

In most situations, either one is fine.

The given word order is very natural:

• Cosa significa questa parola?

Italian word order is often more flexible than English, but not every rearrangement sounds equally natural. For a standard learner-friendly question, this is the best order to use.

A very common variant is:

• Che cosa significa questa parola?

You might also hear other orders in special contexts, but the original sentence is the safest and most standard choice.

No. In this sentence, questa already functions as the determiner, so you do not add an article.

So you say:

• questa parola

not:

• la questa parola

In standard Italian, demonstratives like questo/questa normally replace the article in this kind of phrase.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

KOH-zah seen-yee-FEE-kah KWEH-stah pah-ROH-lah

A few useful notes:

• cosa: the s sounds like z in many accents
• significa: gn in Italian is like ny in canyon
• questa: qu sounds like kw
• parola: stress is on ro

If you want a more IPA-style version, a common pronunciation is approximately:

/ˈkɔːza siɲɲiˈfiːka ˈkwɛsta paˈrɔːla/

It is neutral and perfectly normal in both spoken and written Italian.

You can use it:

• in class
• in conversation
• when reading
• when asking a native speaker for help

If you want to sound a little more polite, you could simply add a polite phrase before or after it, such as:

• Scusi, cosa significa questa parola?
• Mi scusi, che cosa significa questa parola?

That makes the question more courteous, especially with strangers or teachers.

Yes. It is a very useful general question for asking about the meaning of a specific word.

For example, if you point to a word in a text, you can ask:

• Cosa significa questa parola?

If you are asking about a phrase rather than a single word, you would usually change parola to something else, such as:

• Cosa significa questa frase? = What does this sentence/phrase mean?
• Cosa significa questa espressione? = What does this expression mean?

So the structure stays the same; only the noun changes.