Capsicum

capsicum the botanical and also to some extent the common name for a genus of plants which includes a wide range of species: those referred to as peppers, sweet (or bell, or green) peppers, pimento, pimiento, chilli (and in other spellings).

Some of these common names, notably pepper and pimento (see allspice), are also used for fruits of other genera. Hence the need to use the name capsicum here for the Capsicum genus as a whole.

The chilli peppers, the hot ones, are described under their own heading.