Mexican Name Finder
IngredientSpanishnationwide

Cilantro

"coriander leaf"

Say it

see·LAHN·troh

Where it comes from

Spanish cilantro, from Latin coriandrum

What Cilantro means

Cilantro is a Mexican ingredient name of Spanish origin meaning "coriander leaf". It comes from Spanish cilantro, from Latin coriandrum. It is pronounced see-LAHN-troh, and it is most associated with the whole country.

An Old World herb with a Latin name that became inseparable from Mexican food after the conquest; nothing about it is indigenous but the quantity used.

This is a site about what Mexican words mean, so there is no recipe here. For the name itself: The words that appear inside dish names: the chiles (ancho, guajillo, pasilla, chipotle), the corn words (nixtamal, masa, tortilla, elote), and the tools (comal, molcajete, metate). Learn these and most menu items decode themselves.

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Cilantro means coriander leaf

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