hot pepper

noun

: any of various small and usually thin-walled capsicum fruits of marked pungency

also : a plant (especially a variant or cultivar of Capsicum annuum and C. frutescens) bearing hot peppers

Examples of hot pepper in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Many commercial squirrel repellents rely on cayenne and other hot pepper powders to repel squirrels. —Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 4 Sep. 2025

Kumamoto Oysters: These sweet Pacific oysters are served with pickled strawberries on a bed of ice and a dropper bottle of Chester’s hot pepper sauce. —Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Aug. 2025

Along the refrigerated sides of the produce section are loose and packaged items like fresh greens and herbs, hot peppers, oyster mushrooms, Filipino eggplants and more. —Rachel Bernhard, jsonline.com, 19 Aug. 2025

Those include onion and garlic, vinegar, hot peppers and coffee grounds. —Joan Morris, Mercury News, 21 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1945, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for hot pepper

• leper
• lepper
• stepper

Kids Definition

hot pepper

noun

1

: an often thin-walled and small pepper with a sharp or biting taste

2

: a pepper plant of the nightshade family that bears hot peppers