tamale

27 5.7

A corn dough bundle filled with meat or cheese and wrapped in a corn husk

noun
/təˈmɑːleɪ/

: tamal

Homemade green-corn tamales, black beans, and jalapeno rice so hot it'll melt your dental fillings!

I had a bad Tamale yesterday and it's been buckets of liquid ever since.

Examples

And then they bring you a second plate with a tamale and cheese enchilada.

Blog text (29)
I know you usually like cheese tamales, but what if we went with beef?
- I got tamales in the kitchen.

Lords of Dogtown (2005)
They had really good tamales yesterday.

3 Women (1977)
Food offerings might include tamales, mole, hot chocolate, soda pop, or even a bottle of beer.

Blog text (27)
I am thinking of making goat cheese and mint tamales with fresh salsa.

Blog text (33)
In the survey, enchiladas were mentioned most often, but fajitas, tacos, and tamales were also popular.

Academic text (2003)
They had really good tamales yesterday.
Vendors peddled everything from jasmine rice pudding to homemade tamales.

Compounds

tamale pie

4.4

A baked dish of seasoned meat and vegetables topped with cornbread

How Filling

feast

162 1.9

meal

∞ 1.0

tamale

27 5.7

sandwich

800 1.0

snack

471 1.0

Surface Forms

tamale singular

tamales plural

Etymology

The word tamale comes from the Nahuatl word tamalli, which meant a 'wrapped' corn bundle. Spanish changed it to tamal and English to tamale, which is why a tamale is a little 'wrapped' corn dough filled with meat or cheese and cooked in a corn husk.