hot pepper

noun

: any of various small and usually thin-walled capsicum fruits of marked pungency

also : a plant (especially a variant or cultivar of Capsicum annuum and C. frutescens) bearing hot peppers

Examples of hot pepper in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Those include onion and garlic, vinegar, hot peppers and coffee grounds. —Joan Morris, Mercury News, 21 July 2025

By the way, the famous pasta dish of Rome, with hot peppers, amatriciana, actually comes from the far western border town of Amatrice in Abruzzo, and the traditional shape of fresh and dried pasta called ghitarra is cut on a stringed instrument resembling a guitar. —John Mariani, Forbes.com, 17 June 2025

The gourmet tapas menu hits all the classics—croquettes, gilda skewers (anchovies, olives, and hot peppers), partridge salad with escabeche (pickled onions and sweet peppers), Russian salad with anchovies—and the execution is solid. —Ann Abel, Forbes.com, 9 July 2025

The chief also has a habit of placing hot peppers in officers’ food and heating them in the microwave. —Harpers Magazine, 18 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1945, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for hot pepper

• leper
• lepper
• stepper

Kids Definition

hot pepper

noun

1

: an often thin-walled and small pepper with a sharp or biting taste

2

: a pepper plant of the nightshade family that bears hot peppers