Definition of "piñon"

piñon

noun
countable and uncountable, plural piñons or piñones
1. (uncountable, countable) Any of several species of North American pines in Pinus subsect. Cembroides that bear edible seeds (pine nuts), especially Pinus edulis; the nut pine.
  Quotations
  On the mountains a few junipers and piñons are found, and cactuses, agave, and yuccas, low, fleshy plants with bayonets and thorns.
  1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, page 22
  Anglos call it a “kiva fireplace” and put several in every Santa Fe style building, carefully burning piñon firewood upright in the approved local manner.
  1994, Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built, New York: Viking, page 146
2. (countable, uncountable) A pine nut.