Pasilla

//pəˈsiːjə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A variety of chili (a dried chilaca), used especially in sauces.

    "Is it worth $9.99 to have someone buy and cook short ribs, shred them, season them with chipotle, arbol and pasilla chilies, mix them with slices of nopales (cactus paddles), fill two soft tortillas with the mixture and slather them with a rich sauce so you can have beef short rib enchiladas with salsa mestiza and cactus for dinner?"

Example

More examples

"Is it worth $9.99 to have someone buy and cook short ribs, shred them, season them with chipotle, arbol and pasilla chilies, mix them with slices of nopales (cactus paddles), fill two soft tortillas with the mixture and slather them with a rich sauce so you can have beef short rib enchiladas with salsa mestiza and cactus for dinner?"

Etymology

From the Spanish pasilla, diminutive of pasa (“raisin”).

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