Tortilla

Definition: Tortilla

Tortilla

Noun

1. (Mexico) thin unleavened pancake made from cornmeal or wheat flour.

Date "tortilla" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references)

Etymology: Tortilla \Tor*til"la\, noun. [Spanish expression]. (Websters 1913)

Crosswords: Tortilla

English words defined with "tortilla": bean tostada, burrito ♦ enchilada ♦ nacho ♦ taco, tortilla chip, tostada. (references)

Specialty definitions using "tortilla": MEXICAN FOOD MAKER, HAND. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Tortilla" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

Spanish (omelet, omelette, tortilla), Turkish (tortilla).

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Specialty Definition: Tortilla

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A staple of México and Central America, tortilla is a kind of unleavened bread, made from corn or wheat flour.

Traditional tortilla making
The mother grinds the maize with a stone mano and matate as the elder daughter pats the dough into tortillas
El Salvador, c. 1900

The corn tortilla is made by curing maize in lime water, grinding and pre-cooking it, kneading it into a dough called 'masa nixtamalera', pressing it flat into thin patties, and cooking it on a very hot griddle. In Mexico, most corn tortillas are nowadays made by machine and are very thin and uniform, but in Guatemala they are still often made by hand and are thicker. Corn tortillas are customarily served and eaten warm; when cool, they acquire a rubbery texture and are less appetizing.

Traditionally throughout Mesoamerica from Pre-Columbian times into the mid 20th century, the masa was prepared by women using a mano (a cylinder shaped stone like a rolling pin) and matate (a stone base with a slightly convex top for holding the corn).

Most people agree that the traditional stone-ground, hand-made tortillas taste better, but because of the labor required to make these and the common availability of cheap, machine-ground corn flour, traditionally-made tortillas are increasingly less common.

The wheat flour tortilla is made with an unleavened, water-based dough, and pressed and cooked just like corn tortillas. These tortillas are very similar to the unleavened bread popular in Arab, eastern mediterranean and southern Asian countries, though thinner and smaller in diameter.

Tortillas vary in size from about 6 to over 30 cm depending on the region of the country and the dish for which it is intended.

In Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, filled tortillas (gorditas or pupusas) can also be found. These are smaller, thicker corn tortillas to which beans, chicharones, or other ingredients have been added. They are customarily cooked on a greased pan.

See also taco, quesadilla, tostada, enchilada and chilaquiles for examples of traditional Mexican dishes based on tortillas.

In Spanish cuisine, a "tortilla" is a kind of thick potato omelet, usually eaten at room temperature. It is usually referred to as tortilla española.

There is a novel by T. Coraghessan Boyle entitled The Tortilla Curtain.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Tortilla."

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Modern Usage: Tortilla

Domain	Usage
Movie/TV Titles	Tortilla Flaps (1958)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Tortilla

Domain	Title
Books	The Last Tortilla & Other Stories (Camino Del Sol) (reference) The tortilla book (reference) The Tortilla Factory (reference) The Tortilla Quilt Story (reference) Tortilla Lovers Cook Book (reference) (more book examples)

Theater & Movies	Tortilla Flat (reference) Tortilla Soup (reference) (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music	Tortilla Soup [SOUNDTRACK] (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Consumer Goods	Nonstick Tortilla Bowl Makers, Set of 2 (reference) (more baby examples; more wireless phone examples; more garden examples; more kitchen examples; more tool examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Tortilla

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Photo Album: Tortilla

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	(3) color slides show beef and beans and cheese on a bed of tortilla chips. Credit: Renee Comet (photographer).		(2) color slides show different bags of snack chips. (1) bag of Lays brand potato chips, (1) bag of Doritos brand tortilla chips. Credit: Renee Comet (photographer).
	The hearty flavor of corn flour products like tortillas and taco shells is largely the work of a natural compound identified by ARS scientists. They have pinpointed 2-amino-acetophenone as key to flavor and aroma of yellow corn tortilla flour. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer..		Tortilla making. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Tortilla

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Netherlands	Although limited, U.S. brands of organic and natural foods can be found on Dutch retail food shelves including dehydrated soups, tortilla chips, rice milk and salad dressings. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Tortilla

"Tortilla" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 89.66% of the time. "Tortilla" is used about 29 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	89.66%	26	68,323
Noun (proper)	10.34%	3	202,518
Total	100.00%	29	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Tortilla

Expressions using "tortilla": stuffed tortilla ♦ tortilla chip. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Tortilla

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
tortilla soup	255	corn recipe tortilla	25
tortilla soup recipe	173	rollups tortilla	24
tortilla recipe	155	tortilla flour	22
tortilla	128	mica tortilla maker	22
tortilla press	121	tortilla soup movie	21
la tortilla factory	95	low carb tortilla	21
tortilla maker	89	tortilla chip recipe	20
flour recipe tortilla	75	chicken tortilla soup recipe	19
chicken tortilla soup	73	tortilla pinwheels	18
tortilla flats	52	espanola tortilla	18
roll tortilla ups	47	california tortilla	15
tortilla wrap	45	az flat tortilla	15
tortilla curtain	42	lupe tortilla	14
tortilla warmer	42	spanish tortilla	13
tortilla factory	39	roll tortilla	13
tortilla machine	36	de patatas tortilla	12
la tortilla	34	coast tortilla	12
tortilla chip	34	baja grill tortilla	12
tortilla flat	33	de sopa tortilla	11
recipe tortilla wrap	29	casserole chicken tortilla	11
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Tortilla

Language		Translations for "tortilla"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Bulgarian		мексиканска царевична питка. (various references)

Chamorro		titiya. (various references)

Chinese		玉米粉薄烙饼. (various references)

Greek		είδοσ μεξικάνικησ τηγανίτασ. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		トルコ帽 (fez, house trailer, sweat pants, sweat shirt, sweatshirt, tolerance, Tolstoy, toreador, toreador pants, tornado, torso, trace, tracer, tracing, tracing paper, trade, trade money, trade show, trade union, trademark, trade-off, trader, trading, trading company, trail bike, trailer, trailer bus, trailer house, train, trainer, training, training camp, training pants, training shoes, training wear, training wizard, tray, tread, trekker, tremolo, trench coat, trenching, troubadour, very good). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		トルティーヤ , トルティージャ . (various references)

Korean		똘� 야. (various references)

Papago		chemait. (various references)

Pig Latin		ortillatay

Portuguese		bolo liso de milho. (various references)

Romanian		turtã de mãlai. (various references)

Russian		лепешка (griddle cake, johnny-cake, lozenge, pastil, pastille, troche). (various references)

Spanish		tortilla (omelet, omelette). (various references)

Turkish		tortilla, pizza (pizza). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Tortilla

Language	Period	Translations
Late Latin	300-700	torta. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Tortilla

Derivations
	Words beginning with "tortilla": tortillas. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Tortilla" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Dobrilla, Mortella, ortelli, ottilia, tertile, Torill, tortella, tortelli, Tortellier, Tortellio, tortila, Torvil, trilla, Tyrhtil. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Tortilla"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "tortilla" (pronounced tôrtē"u)
3	-t ē" u	Galatea.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Tortilla

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: littoral.
	Words within the letters "a-i-l-l-o-r-t-t"
	-1 letter: litoral.
	-2 letters: rialto, tailor, tallit.
	-3 letters: allot, atilt, atoll, lirot, loral, ottar, ratio, tarot, tolar, total, trail, trait, trial, trill, triol, troll.
	-4 letters: airt, alit, alto, aril, iota, lair, lari, lati, liar, lilt, lira, lota, loti, olla, oral, rail, rato, rial, rill, riot, roil, roll, rota, roti, rotl, tail, tali, tall, taro, tart, till.
	Words containing the letters "a-i-l-l-o-r-t-t"
	+1 letter: littorals, tortillas.
	+3 letters: illustrator, ratatouille, reallotting, saltatorial, sublittoral, ultraviolet.
	+4 letters: alliteration, illustration, illustrators, intolerantly, preallotting, ratatouilles, scintillator, sublittorals, tinctorially, tolerability, torrentially, trifoliolate, ultraviolent, ultraviolets.
	+5 letters: alliterations, collaterality, dictatorially, flirtatiously, heterothallic, horticultural, illustrations, interpellator, multipolarity, nutritionally, obstetrically, patriotically, scintillators, teratological, territorially, theoretically, touristically, traditionally, translational, triploblastic, ultrarational, ultraroyalist.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.