barrio

American  

[bahr-ee-oh, bar-, bahr-ryaw] / ˈbɑr iˌoʊ, ˈbær-, ˈbɑr rjɔ /

noun

• barrios
  plural

1. (in Spain and countries colonized by Spain) one of the divisions into which a town or city, together with the contiguous rural territory, is divided.

2. a part of a large U.S. city, especially a crowded inner-city area, inhabited chiefly by a Spanish-speaking population.

---

barrio British  

/ ˈbarrjo, ˈbærɪəʊ /

noun

1. a Spanish-speaking quarter in a town or city, esp in the US

2. a Spanish-speaking community

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• barrios
  plural

Etymology

Origin of barrio

First recorded in 1890–95; from Spanish: literally, “district, neighborhood,” from Arabic barrī “of open country” (equivalent to barr “outside, open country” + -i adjective suffix) + -o Spanish noun suffix

Explanation

In the U.S., a barrio is the neighborhood where most people speak Spanish. For example, in New York, Spanish Harlem is also called El Barrio. Outside the U.S., barrio refers to a district in Spain or a Spanish-speaking country. The word barrio means "neighborhood" in Spanish, and in most Spanish-speaking places, that's exactly what it means. In Cuba and Spain, barrios are official divisions of municipalities. But in New York, Los Angeles, Tucson, Miami, and other U.S. cities, a barrio isn’t an official district, it’s just the neighborhood where Spanish speakers settled and/or still live.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

barrio barrios

No state rescue squad or security force had arrived at his barrio by Friday, he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

It’s a charming barrio, and it’s been under siege, like many other neighborhoods in the Windy City.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2025

It was a tough start though as he left his family's home in a barrio in Colombia's second-largest city Medellin to pursue that dream.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2024

She also made attempts to pass herself and her children off as Spanish or French as they moved from barrio to barrio, living what Mr. Belafonte would call an “underground life.”

From Washington Post ● Apr. 25, 2023

We walked in the hot dust from Juanita’s place to the mouth of the barrio.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago

The cumbia and vallenato that blare from the speakers in the barrios of Barranquilla or Medellín can also be heard in the streets of La Indepe.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2023

And an unnamed “brother” was “getting at barrios in other states and schooling them in the way we do things,” he wrote.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2023

“They are never going to return to the communities, the neighborhoods, the barrios, the cities of our beloved El Salvador,” Villatoro said.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2023

At least two barrios saw waters rise several feet, and municipal workers spent all night and morning rescuing trapped vulnerable residents, including carrying the bedridden elderly from their soaked beds, he said.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 19, 2022

I wondered if she was trying to pass herself off as a respectable married lady in this, one of the nicer barrios of San Francisco.

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez

Related Words

• part
• place
• point
• region
• sector