tamale

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tamale^¹

/təˈmɑː.liː/ UK
/təˈmɑ.li/ Canada, US
/təˈmɒ.li/ Canada
/təˈmɐː.liː/ Australia, New Zealand
/təˈma.li/ Scotland

Sounds like tomalley · Rhymes with -ɑːli

Where it comes from

Back-formation from the plural tamales, derived from Latin American Spanish tamales, plural of tamal, derived from Nahuatl tamalli (“wrapped”), derived from Proto-Uto-Aztecan *tïmaL-. Compare O'odham cemait (“tortilla”), Hopi tuma (“stone griddle for cooking corn flatbread”), Ute tʉ'ma- (“to roast under ashes”).

noun tamales

A Mexican dish of cornmeal dough shell filled with various ingredients (e.g. chopped beef, pork, sweet filling) then steamed in corn husks. She would peel back the husk, ladle over the salsa verde, stab a plastic fork straight down into the heart of the masa, and hand the tamale over to me.
Similar: humita, tamal

Tamale^²

proper noun

A city in Ghana, the capital city of the Northern Region.

Translations

Every language

noun Mexican dish

Español	tamal, tamale, pishque, paco
日本語	タマレ tamare
中文	塔馬利 /塔马利 tǎmǎlì, 墨西哥玉米粉蒸肉 mòxīgē yùmǐ fěn zhēngròu

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MLA

"tamale." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/tamale. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

tamale. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/tamale

Chicago

"tamale." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/tamale.

BibTeX

@misc{tamale_2026,
  title = {tamale},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/tamale},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}