Nixtamal

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Hominy; maize kernels which have undergone nixtamalization, that is, hulling and soaking and cooking in an alkaline solution. uncountable, usually

Etymology

From Mexican Spanish nixtamal, from Classical Nahuatl nextamalli (“hominy”), from nextli (“ashes, lime”) + tamalli (“something wrapped”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.