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  

/ ˈnɛɡ-, ˈneɪɡrəʊ /

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

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

Negro said all the mistakes made by his team are fixable, so he believes the Braves can get back on the winning track.

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

It found devastating damage to Cerro Negro, the project it operated before 2007 when its infrastructure was nationalized.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

Go to Durham and see Negro business with an aggregate capital of millions....Among your New Year’s resolves, resolve to go to Durham!

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

“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

You know, Hebrews II Negroes was also the name of my favorite R&B group in the ’90s.

From New York Times ● Nov. 6, 2022

Now we have “You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays,” a dazzling collection of her work edited by professors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Genevieve West.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 21, 2022

She stopped once, at a cabin where a family of free Negroes lived.

From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry