quesadilla

American  

[key-suh-dee-uh, ke-sah-thee-yah] / ˌkeɪ səˈdi ə, ˌkɛ sɑˈði jɑ /

noun

Mexican Cooking.

quesadillas plural

1. a tortilla folded over a filling of shredded cheese, and sometimes vegetables or meat, cooked on a griddle or the like.

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quesadilla British  

/ ˌkeɪsəˈdiːljə, -ˈdiːjə /

noun

1. a toasted tortilla filled with cheese and sometimes other ingredients

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• quesadillas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of quesadilla

First recorded in 1940–45; from Mexican Spanish; Spanish: “a pastry or cake made with cheese,” equivalent to quesada ( queso “cheese,” from Latin cāseus; cf. cheese ¹ + -ada noun suffix) + -illa diminutive suffix; see -ade ¹

Explanation

Next time you go to a Mexican restaurant, you might want to order a quesadilla, a grilled tortilla filled with melty cheese. Quesadillas come on flour or corn tortillas, which are loaded with cheese and sometimes vegetables or meat, and cooked over high heat. In Mexico, a quesadilla is traditionally made with Oaxaca cheese inside a folded corn tortilla, which is grilled without oil and served with salsa. There are many variations of this popular dish. Quesadilla comes from the Spanish queso, "cheese."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

quesadilla quesadillas

On Matthews’s morning in the lab this summer, developers were picking the right cheese combination for a quesadilla with poblano pepper and steak, which launched this past Thursday as an LTO.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 22, 2025

This included a Cheesy Gordita Crunch, a Grilled Cheese Burrito, a chicken quesadilla, three soft tacos, five sauce packets, and a Diet Coke.

From Slate ● Dec. 28, 2024

"We then made a kind of quesadilla or panini where the bismuth is the cheesy filling and the tortillas are the atomically flat surfaces," said Wu.

From Science Daily ● May 21, 2024

The meat was well-spiced and a colleague agreed that the quesadilla was “better than it needed to be.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2024

I bit into my quesadilla, wondering if this would be too much work for a group with zero experience.

From "The First Rule of Punk" by Celia C. Pérez

Breakfast tacos, a Tex-Mex delicacy, anchor the morning hours while salsa-brightened al pastor tacos, burritos and quesadillas are all-day favorites.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026

It used to be impossible to find breakfast in town, but now you’ll find breakfast burritos, tacos and quesadillas at the Red Dog Saloon, which opens everyday at 10 a.m.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2025

Melanie is a loyal devotee, using one chicken to anchor several nights of easy, low-cook meals: sandwiches, salads, grain bowls, quesadillas.

From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2025

In keeping with Mexican law, prosecutors identified him by his first name, Jesús Gerardo, alias “el Kekas,” a slang word that means quesadillas, or cheese-filled tortillas.

From Seattle Times ● May 7, 2024

You could even cut up your leftover tortillas after you have tacos or quesadillas and put them in the freezer to save for migas, if you were organized.

From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones