chile

From Spanish chile. A variant of chili, chilli; see that entry for more information.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɪli/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪli
• Homophones: Chile (one General American pronunciation), chili, chilli, chilly

chile (plural chiles)

1. (US, regional) Alternative spelling of chili.

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃaɪl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪl

chile (plural chillun or chirren)

1. Pronunciation spelling of child, representing Southern US and African-American Vernacular English.
   • 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 546:

     “I wants all the women and chillun and the old and the sick folks brought out.”

   • 2019 August 14, Random J, “Missy Elliott is finally getting a Video Vanguard award at the 2019 VMA's: The good, the bad and the messy”, in Random J Pop‎^[1]:

     An award that she shoulda been awarded. And an award they might want to consider changing the name of. Because, chile. Literally. Child.

• chyle

• honey chile

• Liech., cheli-, chiel, elchi, lechi

chile

1. (Devon, Somerset, Worcestershire) alternative form of chele

• Hyphenation: chi‧le

chile m (plural chiles)

1. alternative form of chili

chile

1. inflection of chilar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “chile”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “chile”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from Classical Nahuatl chīlli (“pepper”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃile/ [ˈt͡ʃi.le]

• Audio (Latin America):

  (file)

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ile
• Syllabification: chi‧le

chile m (plural chiles)

1. (Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, US) a chili pepper

   Synonyms: ají, pimiento, picante, guindilla

   Hyponyms: jalapeño, poblano, habanero, chipotle, serrano

2. (vulgar, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico) penis

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pene

• “chile”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025