Word.ws English Dictionary

pili

pili is the plural of pilus.

Noun

pili (plural pilis or pili)

  1. A tropical tree, Canarium ovatum, native to maritime Southeast Asia, New Guinea and northern Australia, and cultivated in the Philippines for its nuts.
    • The pili is indigenous to the Philippines (Merrill 1912, 1923; Wester 1921; Brown 1954; Li 1970).1996, Roberto E. Coronel, Pili Nut, Canarium Ovatum Engl, page 12
    • Pili (Canarium ovatum) is the most important tree nut of the Philippines.[…]Natural populations of pili are found in forests and are threatened by human activities and natural disasters.2009, Bioversity International, Bioversity Annual Report 2009, page 19
  2. The edible nut of the tree.
    • Pili—pronounced “peeley”—is a distinctive, tear-shaped nut native to Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. It’s here that roasted, fried, and sugared varieties of pili can be found for sale on nearly every street.2017 July 13, Claudia McNeilly, “Pili—The Delicious, Healthy Nut You’ve Never Heard Of”, in Vogue
    Synonyms:
    pili nut

Meaning of pilus

Noun

pilus (plural pili)

  1. A hair.
  2. A hairlike appendage found on the cell surface of many bacteria.
    Synonyms:
    fimbria
  3. A bacterial protein that has several biochemical functions.

Proper noun capitalized: Pili

Pili

  1. A municipality, the capital of Camarines Sur, Bicol Region, Luzon, Philippines.

Synonyms of pili

Forms of pili

pluralpilis
pluralpili

Origin of pili

Borrowed from Tagalog pili.

Words formed from pili

Phrases with pili

Questions about pili

What does pili mean?
Pili means a tropical tree, Canarium ovatum, native to maritime Southeast Asia, New Guinea and northern Australia, and cultivated in the Philippines for its nuts.
What is pili the plural of?
Pili is the plural of pilus.
What part of speech is pili?
Pili can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of pili?
The plural of pili is pilis.

Words near pili in the dictionary

  1. pilgrimlike
  2. pilgrims
  3. pilgrims' shells
  4. Pilgrimstad
  5. pilgrimwise
  6. pili
  7. Pili Ilawod
  8. Pili Iraya
  9. pili multigemini
  10. pili nut
  11. pili nuts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pili (page history and authors); Pili (page history and authors); pilus (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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Cite this entry: “pili.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pili. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.