nopal
/noʊˈpɑl/
"nopal" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nopal” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A prickly pear cactus from the genus Opuntia, especially Opuntia cochinellifera; the edible pads (fleshy leaves) of the cactus, considered as food.
Corpus desk
Index EN-nopal · nopal · English
nopal · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "N" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nopal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /noʊˈpɑl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “nopal” in English
Rare enough to double-check
nopal is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /noʊˈpɑl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A prickly pear cactus from the genus Opuntia, especially Opuntia cochinellifera; the edible pads (fleshy leaves) of the cactus, considered as food.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for nopal in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Spanish nopal, from Classical Nahuatl nohpalli (“Opuntia cactus”). Compare nopales. The correct English form is nopal, spelled N-O-P-A-L.
Definition
- 1A prickly pear cactus from the genus Opuntia, especially Opuntia cochinellifera; the edible pads (fleshy leaves) of the cactus, considered as food.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how nopal appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
They rode up through cholla and nopal, a dwarf forest of spined things, through a stone gap in the mountains and down among blooming artemisia and aloe.
Nopal is a prickly pear native to arid areas of North and South America.[…]Nopal is high in fiber, vitamins, protein, and mucilage.
Etymology
From Spanish nopal, from Classical Nahuatl nohpalli (“Opuntia cactus”). Compare nopales.
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.