From Spanish chile habanero “chili from Havana”
A habanero is a small, extremely hot pepper. Habaneros come in various colors, ranging from green to dark red, but you can't tell how hot a habanero is until you taste it. The habanero was once declared the hottest chile by Guiness World Records, but it was eventually overtaken by even spicier peppers. Habaneros have a deceptively sweet initial flavor, with their intense heat increasing over several minutes and often lasting as long as an hour. The habanero was named for the Cuban city of Havana, or La Habana in Spanish.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“The habanero is the life of our cuisine,” said Elio Xicum, a chef who grew up and still lives in Yucatán.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 15, 2024
For comparison, a habanero pepper typically hits 100,000 Scoville heat units, but Pepper X registers at 2.69 million units.
From BBC • Oct. 17, 2023
The only thing that was missing, I said, was the habanero salsa that typically accompanies Yucateco cooking.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 6, 2023
Does the habanero impart a lot of heat?
From Salon • Aug. 16, 2023
“That’s pure habanero pepper, dried and ground down to dust. Not too bad in beans, but hell in your eyes.”
From "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld
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.
