cayenne
1 Americannoun
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a hot, biting condiment composed of the ground pods and seeds of the pepper Capsicum annuum longum.
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the long, wrinkled, twisted fruit of this plant.
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the plant itself.
noun
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a seaport in and the capital of French Guiana.
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Also called cayenne whist. (lowercase) a variety of whist played with two full packs of 52 cards each.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cayenne
1750–60; short for cayenne pepper, formerly cayan < Tupi kyinha, but long associated with Cayenne
Explanation
Cayenne is a hot pepper plant. A cayenne is related to a green bell pepper, but it's much spicier. Most cayenne is eaten as a spice — seeds from the plant are dried and ground, then judiciously sprinkled in dishes like chili and Buffalo wings. In its dry form, cayenne is a bright red powder. The word cayennne was mistakenly associated with the capital of French Guiana, Cayenne, though there's actually no relation between the place and the plant. Instead, the root is the Tupi word kyynha.
Vocabulary lists containing cayenne
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Cayenne recorded the highest demand in the quarter and an all-electric version of the SUV will be introduced to markets later this year, with first deliveries to customers expected from the summer.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026
The boy and the adults were in a Toyota Auris when it was in collision with a grey Porsche Cayenne just before 23:00 GMT.
From BBC • Dec. 16, 2024
When he realized Ohtani’s day-to-day vehicle was a Porsche Cayenne, he bought one of those too.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 18, 2024
Across three U.S. clinical sites and with the support of Cayenne Wellness, a patient-driven organization, 174 adult patients and 109 parents of children living with SCD completed the survey.
From Science Daily • Oct. 31, 2023
The distance derived from measurements of the parallax of Mars carried out in 1671 by a French team using simultaneous observations by Jean Richer from Cayenne, in French Guiana, and Cassini from Paris.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.