nopal
prickly pear cactus
Reviewed by: David WestfallCofounder
The flat, spiny pads of the prickly pear cactus
Encoding Strategies:
mnemonic
visual
no, pal
no, buddy
Nopal means prickly pear cactus and sounds like "no, pal0, don't touch it!", like someone telling you not to touch it.
nopal
prickly pear cactus, nopal cactus
The cactus itself, which grows as a stack of flat oval pads covered in spines.
Detrás de la casa crece un nopal enormeBehind the house grows an enormous prickly pear cactus
Me pinché el dedo con las espinas del nopalI pricked my finger on the spines of the nopal cactus
cactus pad, nopal, nopales (food)
A young pad of the cactus with the spines scraped off, cooked and eaten as a vegetable. On a menu you'll almost always see it in the plural, nopales.
Mi abuela prepara los nopales con huevo para el desayunoMy grandmother makes cactus pads with egg for breakfast
Pedí una ensalada de nopal en el restauranteI ordered a nopal salad at the restaurant