panela
noun
panela is a noun meaning “An unrefined sugar product typical of Latin America, which is basically a solid piece of sucrose and fructose obtained from the boiling and…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-A-N-E-L-A, and it appears about once in every 52 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does panela mean?
noun
- 1
An unrefined sugar product typical of Latin America, which is basically a solid piece of sucrose and fructose obtained from the boiling and evaporation of sugarcane.
- 2
A white, fresh, and smooth Mexican cheese of pasteurized cow's milk similar to Indian paneer.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is panela?
Panela appears about once in every 52 million words in written English, the 225,584th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Panela in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense unrefined sugar product:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pain de vesou |
| Portuguese | rapadura |
| Spanish | panela, piloncillo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does panela come from?
Borrowed from Spanish panela.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).