Word.ws English Dictionary

nixtamalization

nixtamalization noun: a process for the preparation of maize (corn) in which the grain is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, and hulled.

Noun

nixtamalization (uncountable)

  1. A process for the preparation of maize (corn) in which the grain is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, and hulled.
    • Nixtamalization, a traditional Mexican process for making tortillas, consists of cooking maize grain in excess water and lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)₂), at temperatures near boiling, followed by steeping.2014, John F. Leslie, Antonio Logrieco, editors, Mycotoxin Reduction in Grain Chains, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 124

Origin of nixtamalization

From nixtamal + -ization.

Questions about nixtamalization

What does nixtamalization mean?
Nixtamalization means a process for the preparation of maize (corn) in which the grain is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, and hulled.
What part of speech is nixtamalization?
Nixtamalization is a noun.

Words near nixtamalization in the dictionary

  1. Nixonomics
  2. Nixons
  3. Nixson
  4. nixtamal
  5. nixtamalise
  6. nixtamalization
  7. nixtamalize
  8. nixtamalized
  9. nixtamalizes
  10. nixtamalizing
  11. nixtamals

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nixtamalization (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.

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