cholla

/ˈt͡ʃɔɪ.ə/

cholla noun: any of several species of cactus in the genus Cylindropuntia, having very spiny, cylindrical stem segments.

Image: Charlesdarling, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

cholla (plural chollas)

Any of several species of cactus in the genus Cylindropuntia, having very spiny, cylindrical stem segments.
- Throughout Arizona the floors of such caves are found covered with a deep bed of chollas.1889 January 26, “Archæological camping in Arizona”, in American Architect and Architecture, volume 52, page 43
- The cholla was two feet high, and six feet in diameter.1890 October, “A Series of Eggs of Palmer's Thrasher”, in The Ornithologist and Oölogist, volume 15, page 155

The terrain was thick with cholla and clumps of it clung to the horses with spikes that would drive through a bootsole to the bones within […]1985, Cormac McCarthy, chapter 17, in Blood Meridian […] , →OCLC:
On the front nine, Jones stuck to Woods like a cholla cactus.2009 February 26, Karen Crouse, “Woods Returns as He Left: A Winner”, in New York Times:

plural	chollas

From a Mexican Spanish use of Spanish cholla (“head, skull”). Compare keel.

What does cholla mean?: Cholla means any of several species of cactus in the genus Cylindropuntia, having very spiny, cylindrical stem segments.
How do you use cholla in a sentence?: The terrain was thick with cholla and clumps of it clung to the horses with spikes that would drive through a bootsole to the bones within […]
What part of speech is cholla?: Cholla is a noun.
How do you pronounce cholla?: Cholla is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃɔɪ.ə/.
What is the plural of cholla?: The plural of cholla is chollas.

Adapted from Wiktionary: cholla (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “cholla.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cholla. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.