tamale

noun

ta·​ma·​le tə-ˈmä-lē 

: cornmeal dough rolled with ground meat or beans seasoned usually with chili, wrapped usually in corn husks, and steamed

Examples of tamale in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This outdoor, multisensory concept features authentic Yucatán recipes, such as tamales with crispy suckling pig and pumpkin sauce and local aguas frescas, paired with traditional storytelling around a firepit in a jungle environment. —AFAR Media, 23 Oct. 2025

Food spans across the board from tamales to ice cream and tacos to warm-and-comforting atole drinks. —Lisa Hix, Mercury News, 22 Oct. 2025

The tamales, made from nixtamalized corn masa (corn that is ground into flour in a specific way) and filled with rabbit meat braised in miso and pasilla pepper, are wrapped in dark-green Mexican pepper leaves (acuyo leaf). —Miguel Otárola, Denver Post, 21 Oct. 2025

Also included in the lawsuit is a 46-year-old vendor of tamales in Los Angeles who was beaten at a bus stop in 2021 and had received a deferred action status. —Sophie Carson, jsonline.com, 17 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Mexican Spanish tamales, plural of tamal tamale, from Nahuatl tamalli steamed cornmeal dough

First Known Use

1854, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for tamale

• colley
• collie
• dolly
• folly
• golly
• holly
• jolley
• jolly
• lolly
• mollie
• molly
• ollie

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Kids Definition

tamale

noun

ta·​ma·​le tə-ˈmäl-ē 

: cornmeal dough rolled with ground meat or beans seasoned usually with chili, wrapped in corn husks, and steamed

Geographical Definition

Tamale

geographical name

Ta·​ma·​le tä-ˈmä-lā 

town in northern Ghana population 371,351