Home › Words › N › nopalnopal/noʊˈpɑl/nopal means A prickly pear cactus from the genus Opuntia, especially Opuntia cochinellifera; the edible pads (fleshy leaves) of the cactus, considered as food.nopal is pronounced /noʊˈpɑl/.EtymologyFrom Spanish nopal, from Classical Nahuatl nohpalli (“Opuntia cactus”). Compare nopales.nounA prickly pear cactus from the genus Opuntia, especially Opuntia cochinellifera; the edible pads (fleshy leaves) of the cactus, considered as food.e.g.“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.” — 1985, Cormac McCarthy, chapter VII, in Blood Meridian […] , →OCLC:Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).Words closest in meaningBy meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.nopales 80% match — The leaves of a prickly pear cactus, as used in Mexican cooking. vs nopal →nopalery 77% match — A plantation of nopal (a prickly pear cactus of the genus Opuntia, especially Opuntia cochinellifera) used as food for the cochineal insect (Dactylopius coccus), which is raised to produce carmine dye. vs nopal →opuntia 71% match — Opuntia, a genus of cactus that includes such cacti as the prickly pear and xoconostle. vs nopal →pitaya 59% match — Certain cactuses native to the Americas, of genera Selenicereus or Stenocereus, especially the latter. vs nopal →cochineal 56% match — A scale insect of the species Dactylopius coccus, native to the tropical and subtropical Americas, which lives on prickly pear cacti (genus Opuntia). vs nopal →platyopuntia 55% match — Any prickly pear of the former genus Platyopuntia, most of which are now considered to be in the Opuntia genus vs nopal →nispero 55% match — The loquat, Eriobotrya japonica. vs nopal →cardoncillo 54% match — A woody tropical American cactus Wilcoxia papillosa vs nopal →