guayabera

American  

[gwahy-uh-ber-uh, gwah-yah-be-rah] / ˌgwaɪ əˈbɛr ə, ˌgwɑ yɑˈβɛ rɑ /

noun

guayaberas plural

1. a sport shirt or lightweight jacket, often with several large front pockets, modeled upon a loose, smocklike shirt originally worn by men in Cuba.

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• guayaberas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of guayabera

First recorded in 1935–40; from Latin American Spanish, further origin uncertain; perhaps from Spanish guayaba “guava (fruit)” (the shirt pockets being large enough to hold guavas)

Example Sentences

Onstage, Rodriguez, hosted in his own signature style — no gold lamé, but a fedora, black sunglasses and a white guayabera shirt.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 28, 2025

She spoke with disgust of Cuban officials, saying she couldn’t bring herself to wear traditional guayabera dress because they do.

From Washington Times • Jan. 6, 2023

Tens of millions of dollars in ads isn’t the same as Caruso shaking hands at East L.A.’s Mexican Independence Day parade while sporting a light-blue guayabera and looking genuinely sharp.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 27, 2022

In 2016, Bayens and van Twisk, both of whom are Dutch, hired Vince Pankoke, a retired F.B.I. agent in Florida who “still seems to be living undercover, a mild, anonymous man in a guayabera shirt.”

From New York Times • Jan. 17, 2022

Bren comes out of his room, sporting a half-unbuttoned guayabera and a rhinestone cross dangling from a sparkly silver chain.

From "The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora" by Pablo Cartaya