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jalapeño pepper

jalapeño pepper

1 3.0
A medium-hot green or red chili from Mexico used in cooking
  • noun
  • /ˌhɑːləˈpeɪnjoʊ ˈpɛpər/
translation icon : jalapeño
  • Add the tomatoes, onion, jalapeño pepper, garlic, salt, and pepper to the mashed avocado.
  • sliced jalapeno peppers
  • chopped jalapeno pepper
  • minced jalapeno pepper

Examples

  • And to kick it up maybe a notch or two, I got a jalapeño pepper.

  • But I liked the idea of lime juice with ginger, and for a little heat, I thought maybe a jalapeño pepper.

    Blog text (29)
  • Jalapeño pepper, sliced and minced

    Blog text (27)
  • I also noted that you decided against using shallots as they were too strong, but opted for ginger, lime, cilantro, and jalapeño pepper!

    Blog text (29)
  • You can smell the hot jalapeño peppers splitting open in my mother's spaghetti sauce.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • The President likes his burgers with cheese, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, and sometimes jalapeño peppers.

    Blog text (6)
  • Add diced jalapeño pepper to your salsa for an extra kick of heat.

  • She chopped a fresh jalapeño pepper to add to the guacamole.

  • For a spicy dish, include jalapeño peppers in your stir-fry recipe.

Synonyms

pepper
vsjalapeño pepper
142 1.0

A plant that makes hollow fruits eaten as vegetables, some sweet and some hot

is one specific hot variety rather than the whole sweet to hot range
jalapeno
vsjalapeño pepper
16 4.0

A medium hot green or red pepper used in Mexican cooking

is identical in meaning but differs only in spelling or form
hot pepper
vsjalapeño pepper
9 2.0

A spicy red or green pepper used to add heat to food

is a single Mexican medium-sized variety rather than any spicy variety
chili pepper
vsjalapeño pepper
  • US
9 1.0

A small red or green pod that makes food hot

is medium-sized rather than the small pods described here
capsicum
vsjalapeño pepper
  • Specialized
1 5.5

A vegetable like a bell pepper or hot pepper used for cooking

is the culinary single spicy variety rather than the botanical group

How Spicy

habanero
4 4.9
serrano
1 3.5
jalapeño pepper
1 3.0
poblano
  • US
4 3.9
bell pepper
  • US
21 1.6

Surface Forms

Morphology

jalapeno + pepper

The meaning is directly compositional: 'jalapeño' names a specific spicy chili and 'pepper' indicates it is a capsicum, so the phrase simply specifies the type of pepper. Although 'jalapeño' alone often implies a pepper, the noun+noun pattern is transparent and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand the MWE.

Etymology

Jalapeño pepper may come from the Mexican city Xalapa, where people were called jalapeños, so a local pepper took that name. These medium green or red peppers are 'spicy', so the name now helps you remember they add 'heat' to food.