quesadilla

Borrowed from Spanish quesadilla.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌkeɪ̯səˈdiː(l)jə/, [ˌkʰeɪ̯səˈdiːl(j)ə], /ˌkeɪ̯səˈdiːə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) enPR: kāsədē′ə, IPA^(key): /ˌkeɪ̯səˈdi(j)ə/, [ˌkʰeɪ̯səˈdi(j)ə]
• Rhymes: -iːə

quesadilla (plural quesadillas)

1. A Mexican dish made by filling a tortilla with cheese and sometimes other ingredients and then cooking it until the cheese is melted.
2. A Salvadoran pan dulce made with rice flour and queso duro blanco and topped with sesame seeds.
   • 2015 December 3, Bill Esparza, “For National Pastry Day, Consider El Salvador’s Sweet Quesadilla”, in Los Angeles Magazine‎^[1], archived from the original on 4 August 2025:

     In the Salvadoran bakery, the quesadilla is king, whether cut into squares from a cake tray or baked into discus-sized round coffee cakes.

Outside of a Salvadoran or Guatemalan context, such as a Salvadoran-American bakery, the Mexican dish is typically assumed and the term Salvadoran quesadilla or quesadilla salvadoreña would be used to refer to the Salvadoran dish.

• pizzadilla
• quesalada
• quesalupa
• quesarito

Unadapted borrowing from Mexican Spanish quesadilla.

• IPA^(key): /kɛ.saˈdi.ja/
• Rhymes: -ija
• Syllabification: que‧sa‧di‧lla

quesadilla f

1. quesadilla (Mexican dish made by filling a tortilla with cheese and sometimes other ingredients, and then cooking it until the cheese is melted)

• quesadilla in Polish dictionaries at PWN

From quesada +‎ -illa, in turn from queso +‎ -ada (compare the development of frijolada, mariscada).^[1] One folk etymology more directly derives the word from a portmanteau of queso and tortilla.

• Rhymes: -iʝa

• Audio (Mexico):

  (file)

• Syllabification: que‧sa‧di‧lla

quesadilla f (plural quesadillas)

1. quesadilla
2. (El Salvador) a type of pan dulce made with rice flour and queso duro blanco and topped with sesame seeds, known elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world as a quesadilla salvadoreña

• English: quesadilla
• Spanish: quezadilla

• molote
• sincronizada

• “quesadilla”, 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