Quinceañera is the Spanish word for the formal coming-of-age celebration associated with a girl's fifteenth birthday. The term can refer to both the event and, in many communities, the girl being honored.
It combines quince, meaning fifteen, with a feminine ending. English-language communities often retain the Spanish spelling, including the ñ, although informal spellings without the accent or tilde also appear.
The word is distinct from cumpleañera, which simply means a female birthday celebrant. A quinceañera specifically signals the culturally marked fifteenth-birthday tradition and its associated ceremonies.