Word.ws English Dictionary

prickly pear

Syllables: prick·ly pear/ˌpɹɪk.li ˈpɛə(ɹ)/UK/ˌpɹɪkli ˈpɛː/

prickly pear noun: any of various spiny cacti of the genus Opuntia.

prickly pear: any of various spiny cacti of the genus Opuntia
Image: Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

prickly pear (plural prickly pears)

  1. Any of various spiny cacti of the genus Opuntia.
    • "I wonder where those prickly pear blossoms came from," he mused.1949, Dorothy M. Johnson, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 107
  2. The fruit, often edible, of such a plant.

Proper noun capitalized: Prickly Pear

Prickly Pear

  1. An island of the British Virgin Islands.

prickly pear meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Punjabi

prickly pear in Tamil

சப்பாத்திக்கள்ளி, நாகதாளி, பலவகைக்கள்ளி

prickly pear in Urdu

ناگ پھنی

prickly pear in Telugu

any of various spiny cacti of the genus Opuntia
నాగజెముడు nāgajemuḍu

prickly pear in Punjabi

any of various spiny cacti of the genus Opuntia
ਨਾਗਫਨੀ nāgphanī
More languagesFewer languages
prickly pear in Gujarati
નાગફણી nāgaphṇī, હાથલો hāthlo
prickly pear in Arabic
تِين شَوْكِيّ tīn šawkiyy, بَلَس balas, صُبَّار ṣubbār

Synonyms of prickly pear

All synonyms of prickly pear

Forms of prickly pear

pluralprickly pears

Origin of prickly pear

From prickly + pear, from the nature of the plant's fruit, which, like the cactus it grows on, has spines on its surface.

The island is named for the prickly pear (“Opuntia sp.”) plants which grow on it.

Words formed from prickly pear

Words that rhyme with prickly pear

Questions about prickly pear

What does prickly pear mean?
Prickly pear means any of various spiny cacti of the genus Opuntia.
What is prickly pear in Tamil?
Prickly pear in Tamil is சப்பாத்திக்கள்ளி, நாகதாளி, பலவகைக்கள்ளி. See Prickly pear meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is prickly pear?
Prickly pear can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce prickly pear?
Prickly pear is pronounced /ˌpɹɪkli ˈpɛː/ (UK).
What is the plural of prickly pear?
The plural of prickly pear is prickly pears.

Words near prickly pear in the dictionary

  1. prickly lettuce
  2. prickly lettuces
  3. prickly nightshade
  4. prickly oak
  5. prickly oaks
  6. prickly pear
  7. prickly pear cactus
  8. Prickly Pear Cays
  9. Prickly Pear Island
  10. prickly pears
  11. prickly poison

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prickly pear (page history and authors); Prickly Pear (page history and authors); prickly pear (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prickly pear (Urdu Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-prickly pear.wav.

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