cholla

American  

[chohl-yah, -yuh, chaw-yah] / ˈtʃoʊl yɑ, -yə, ˈtʃɔ yɑ /

noun

plural

chollas

1. any of several spiny treelike cacti belonging to the genus Opuntia, especially O. fulgida of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico, having knobby outgrowths and yellow spines.

---

cholla British  

/ ˈtʃoʎa, ˈtʃəʊljɑː /

noun

1. any of several spiny cacti of the genus Opuntia that grow in the southwestern US and Mexico and have cylindrical stem segments See also prickly pear

---

Etymology

Origin of cholla

First recorded in 1855–60, from Mexican Spanish cholla “head” (perhaps from dialectal Old French cholle “ball,” from Germanic)

Example Sentences

On Camino Escalante, Guthrie’s squat, orange brick house is set back from the road behind a lawn planted with prickly pear, agave, cholla and yucca.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 13, 2026

“A lot of people test the cholla, like, ‘Is it really painful?’”

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 1, 2024

Over three decades, neighborhood foresters have transformed Dunbar Spring’s bald curbsides into lush forests of mesquite, hackberry, cholla and prickly pear cactus and more—all plants that have edible parts.

From Salon • Jan. 29, 2024

The giant boulders stuck out like warts among the prickly barrel cactuses and the sun-haloed cholla plants.

From New York Times • Jan. 24, 2023

The truck was parked at the foot of a rocky little hill covered with cholla.

From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko