Standard Lemma guide

nopalery

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈnəʊp(ə)ləɹi/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈnəʊp(ə)lɹi/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈnoʊpəˌlɛri/

1

noun

Meaning 1

A plantation of nopal (a prickly pear cactus of the genus Opuntia, especially Opuntia cochinellifera) used as food for the cochineal insect (Dactylopius coccus), which is raised to produce carmine dye.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: historical

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From nopal + -ery (suffix forming nouns indicating places of arts, crafts, or practices), modelled after French nopalerie. Nopal is borrowed from Spanish nopal, from Classical Nahuatl nohpalli (“cactus of the genus Opuntia”), from Proto-Uto-Aztecan [Term?].

Across languages

Translations

4 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • French: nopalerie — plantation of nopal used as food for the cochineal insect
  • French: nopalière — plantation of nopal used as food for the cochineal insect
  • Mon: သတ်ပ္ကဴမၚ်ကြေံ — plantation of nopal used as food for the cochineal insect
  • Spanish: nopalar — plantation of nopal used as food for the cochineal insect