Creole

American  

[kree-ohl] / ˈkri oʊl /

noun

1. a person born in the West Indies or Spanish America but of European, usually Spanish, ancestry.

2. a person born in Louisiana but of usually French ancestry.

3. Sometimes creole a person of mixed Black and European, especially French or Spanish, ancestry who speaks a creolized form of French or Spanish.

4. Usually creole creole language.

5. the creolized French language of the descendants of the original settlers of Louisiana.

6. Haitian Creole.

7. Archaic. Usually creole a Black person born in the Americas, as distinguished from one brought there from Africa.

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adjective

1. Sometimes creole relating to or characteristic of a Creole or Creoles.

2. Cooking. Usually creole indicating a spicy sauce or dish, especially one made with tomatoes, peppers, onions, celery, and seasonings, and often served with rice.

3. Sometimes creole bred or growing in a country, but of foreign origin, as an animal or plant.

Creole ¹ British  

/ ˈkriːəʊl /

noun

1. (sometimes not capital)

   1. a native-born person of European, esp Spanish, ancestry

   2. a native-born person of mixed European and African ancestry who speaks a French or Spanish creole

   3. a native-born Black person as distinguished from one brought from Africa

2. (in Louisiana and other Gulf States of the US) a native-born person of French ancestry

3. the creolized French spoken in Louisiana, esp in New Orleans

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of any of these peoples

creole ² British  

/ ˈkriːəʊl /

noun

1. a language that has its origin in extended contact between two language communities, one of which is generally European. It incorporates features from each and constitutes the mother tongue of a community Compare pidgin

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adjective

1. denoting, relating to, or characteristic of creole

2. (of a sauce or dish) containing or cooked with tomatoes, green peppers, onions, etc

Other Word Forms

• half-Creole adjective

Etymology

Origin of Creole

First recorded in 1595–1605; from French, from Spanish criollo, from Portuguese crioulo “native,” derivative of criar “to bring up,” from Latin creāre; create

Explanation

A creole is a language that comes from a simplified version of another language, or the mix of two or more languages. In Haiti, people speak a creole that's mostly based on French. When a new language is a variation on one or more older languages, you can call it a creole. Many creoles arise from the contact between both languages and cultures — Haitian creole sounds similar to French, but it's also influenced by Portuguese, Spanish, and some West African languages, since it emerged from the connection between French colonists and enslaved Africans. Creole comes from the Portuguese crioulo, "servant raised in one's house."

Example Sentences

Americans learned that his melting-pot family history included French, Italian, Spanish and mixed-race Louisiana Creole roots.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 21, 2026

He has Creole roots through family members from New Orleans.

From Salon • Jun. 18, 2025

We started with turtle soup at the classic Creole restaurant Galatoire’s, and ended seven hours later on the curb a few blocks down, sweaty and triumphant in rumpled suits and cocktail dresses.

From Slate • Jan. 7, 2025

What she did not realise until years later was that the Creole word came directly from the English word "hurry up".

From BBC • Dec. 27, 2024

When he was away from Haiti, he was flooded with Creole emails.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French