Skip to content

kalabasa

kalabása with stress marks

squash; pumpkin

noun ka-la-BA-sa Spanish origin Less Common
Illustration of "kalabasa" (squash; pumpkin)

Usage Note

Kalabasa is a staple vegetable in Filipino cuisine, frequently used in stews like pinakbet or cooked with coconut milk in ginataan dishes. It is a key ingredient in many common, home-cooked Filipino meals.

Examples

Beginner

" Malaki ang kalabasa. "

Natural Translation

The squash is large.

Literal Translation

Big the squash.

Intermediate

" Masustansya ang kalabasa. "

Natural Translation

Squash is nutritious.

Literal Translation

Nutritious the squash.

Advanced

" Niluto ni Nanay ang kalabasa sa gata kasama ang hipon, kaya napakasarap ng aming hapunan kagabi. "

Natural Translation

Mom cooked the squash in coconut milk together with shrimp, so our dinner last night was very delicious.

Literal Translation

Cooked by-mother the squash in coconut-milk together-with the shrimp, so very-delicious of our dinner last-night.

Free · iOS & Android

Take Tagalog with you

The full course, a 12,500-word dictionary, and flashcards that make every word stick — free to start on iOS and Android.

Tagalog builds thousands of words from a few hundred roots.

How Tagalog words work

Derived Words

Actor Focus Verbs

Explore Tagalog by topic

Free guides on grammar, vocabulary, and culture to take you past single-word lookups.