palomita

Spanish

Etymology

From paloma (“dove”) +‎ -ita (diminutive suffix). The "popcorn" sense comes from popcorn's resemblance in appearance to doves.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /paloˈmita/ [pa.loˈmi.t̪a]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ita
• Syllabification: pa‧lo‧mi‧ta

Noun

palomita f (plural palomitas)

1. diminutive of paloma, little dove
2. (countable) (piece of) popcorn

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:palomita

   1. (in the plural) popcorn
3. (Mexico) check mark, tick

   Synonyms: (Puerto Rico) cotejo, (Spain) tic, tick, (Chile) ticket

4. (botany) Codonorchis lessonii
5. (soccer) diving header
6. (Peru) penis

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pene

Derived terms

• cuello palomita (“wing collar, a type of shirt collar often used with tuxedo”)
• palomita cordillerana
• palomita dorada

Further reading

• palomita on the Spanish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^es
• “palomita”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• “palomita”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010
• “palomita”, in Diccionario del español de México [Dictionary of the Spanish of Mexico] (in Spanish), second edition, Mexican Academy of the Language [Spanish: Academia Mexicana de la Lengua], 2019
• palomita | Diccionario • DELE Ahora