Negro

¹ American  

[nee-groh] / ˈni groʊ /

noun

• Negroes
  plural

1. Anthropology. (no longer in technical use) a member of the peoples traditionally classified as the Negro race, especially those who originate in sub-Saharan Africa.

2. Older Use: Often Offensive. a Black person.

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adjective

1. Anthropology. (no longer in technical use) of, relating to, or characteristic of one of the traditional racial divisions of humankind, generally marked by brown to black skin pigmentation, dark eyes, and tightly curled hair and including especially the Indigenous peoples of Africa south of the Sahara.

2. Older Use. of or relating to Black people, often African Americans: the Negro leagues in baseball.

   a Negro spiritual;

   the Negro leagues in baseball.

Negro ² American  

[ney-groh, ne-graw, ne-groo] / ˈneɪ groʊ, ˈnɛ grɔ, ˈnɛ grʊ /

noun

1. a river in NW South America, flowing SE from E Colombia through N Brazil into the Amazon. 1,400 miles (2,255 km) long.

2. a river in S Argentina, flowing E from the Andes to the Atlantic. 700 miles (1,125 km) long.

3. a river in SE South America, flowing S from Brazil and W through Uruguay, to the Uruguay River. About 500 miles (800 km) long.

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Negro ¹ British  

/ ˈneɪɡrəʊ, ˈnɛɡ- /

noun

1. a river in NW South America, rising in E Colombia (as the Guainía) and flowing east, then south as part of the border between Colombia and Venezuela, entering Brazil and continuing southeast to join the Amazon at Manáus. Length: about 2250 km (1400 miles)

2. a river in S central Argentina, formed by the confluence of the Neuquén and Limay Rivers and flowing east and southeast to the Atlantic. Length: about 1014 km (630 miles)

3. a river in central Uruguay, rising in S Brazil and flowing southwest into the Uruguay River. Length: about 467 km (290 miles)

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Negro ² British  

/ ˈniːɡrəʊ /

noun

1. a member of any of the dark-skinned indigenous peoples of Africa and their descendants elsewhere

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adjective

1. relating to or characteristic of Negroes

Sensitive Note

See Black ¹.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Negroism
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Negroes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Negro

First recorded in 1545–55; from Spanish and Portuguese negro “black,” from Latin nigrum, masculine accusative of niger “black”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Negro Negroes

"There are many strategies right now to limit our voting rights, but we're not going to stop," Alotta Taylor, vice chair for the National Council of Negro Women, told AFP.

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

Then you have to retreat with your mind into the music, and allow the music to express a kind of deep belief, like what the Negro spirituals express.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

“It was almost like the moment was too big,” Braves coach Jason Negro said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

One of my favorite moments in their adventure shows Higgins finding his way to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2026

“They are several of the authors from our lecture series. Of course, Chicago is home to many esteemed Negro writers.”

From "Finding Langston" by Lesa Cline-Ransome

“Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy held a secret meeting here yesterday with a group of prominent Negroes to obtain their views on methods of combating segregation and discrimination in the North,” Robinson’s article began.

From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2025

Reporter: The first thorough study of Negroes and how they live in this country was completed only a few months ago.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 26, 2023

In the same interview, he noted ruefully that although he sang music with “roots in the Black culture of American Negroes, Africa and the West Indies,” most of his fans were white.

From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2023

In 1680, the Virginia legislature passed “an act for preventing Negroes Insurrections” that forbid enslaved Africans from carrying weapons, gathering in public, and traveling without permission.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

And thanks to those Quakers, he had some pretty radical notions on how Negroes should be treated.

From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson