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chili

nounnouncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈt͡ʃɪliː//
  • United States//ˈt͡ʃɪli//

The pungent, spicy fresh or dried fruit of any of several cultivated varieties of capsicum peppers, used in cooking.

noun

  1. 1

    The pungent, spicy fresh or dried fruit of any of several cultivated varieties of capsicum peppers, used in cooking.

    Capsicum—the dried ripe fruit of Capsicum fastigiatum—is also known as Chilly pepper, Chillies, Guinea, or pod pepper, and is chiefly brought from Zanzibar. The several varieties differ in shape and size, are of a red colour, and filled with numerous red-brown, pungent seeds.

    Kama Indian Bistro, […] Everything is made from scratch, including the spice blends and sauces; the ingredients are quality; and the heat is no-holds-barred. Planks of crispy, "chilly" potatoes and elegant, delicately flavored shrimp Sunnaina in white-wine garlic-tomato concassé are hits.

  2. 2

    Powdered chili pepper, used as a spice or flavouring in cooking.

  3. 3

    A spicy stew of chicken or paneer, capsicum and onion, eaten as an appetizer.

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish chile, from Classical Nahuatl chīlli.

noun

  1. 1

    A dish made with chili peppers and other ingredients, such as beans and beef.

  2. 2

    Cincinnati chili.

Etymology

Ellipsis of chili con carne, from Spanish chile con carne (literally “chili with meat”).

Forms

plural
chilis, chilies
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).