noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A plant of the nightshade family originating in Mexico, Physalis philadelphica, cultivated for its tomato-like green to green-purple fruit surrounded by a thin papery skin.
2. 2
   small edible yellow to purple tomato-like fruit enclosed in a bladderlike husk wordnet
3. 3
   annual of Mexico and southern United States having edible purplish viscid fruit resembling small tomatoes wordnet
4. 4
   Mexican annual naturalized in eastern North America having yellow to purple edible fruit resembling small tomatoes wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

husk tomatojamberrymexican husk tomatomiltomatephysalis ixocarpaphysalis philadelphica

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish tomatillo, diminutive of tomate (“tomato”), ultimately from Classical Nahuatl tomatl.

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