Jump To:

• Creole
  Creole

  noun

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

  noun

  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

Creole

American  

[kree-ohl] / ˈkri oʊl /

noun

Creoles plural

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.

---

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

---

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

---

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

Derived Forms

• half-Creole
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Creoles
  plural

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; see 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

See Examples For:

Creole creole Creoles

After the band broke up in 1979, Ms. Daye recorded a successful solo album, and Messrs. Darnell and Hernandez formed the popular Kid Creole and the Coconuts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026

The word is Cape Verdean Creole for "our time has come."

From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026

"When I'm with the Haitian team, it helps a lot to understand more about the culture and the language. I don't speak Creole so that's something I really want to dig into."

From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026

Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, has Creole roots.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2025

The vendor who formerly had the Quarter route wore an improbable pirate’s outfit, a Paradise Vendor’s nod to New Orleans folklore and history', a Clydian attempt to link the hot dog with Creole legend.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

Fried cicada nymphs were dressed on top with a warm mixture of creole mustard and soy sauce.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 18, 2024

“It turned out that the plan got overwhelmed, out of hand,” Joseph said in creole.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 19, 2023

Their isolation on rice, indigo and cotton plantations on coastal South Carolina, Georgia and North Florida helped them maintain ties to West African cultural traditions and creole language.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 25, 2023

In the face of this violent turn of events, creole and Spanish elites, even those who had originally supported Hidalgo, set aside their differences to protect their privileged positions—and their lives.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

Of the approximately 40 New World nations, all now have an Indo-European language or creole as the official language.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Those Creoles don’t mess around with their potato salad.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026

While people of any race can and have identified as Louisiana Creoles, many were multiracial thanks to the confluence of Native Americans, Africans and European immigrants concentrated in the state.

From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2022

“They educated the palate of people across this city with a true representation of what the cooking of Creoles of color means.”

From Washington Times ● Nov. 14, 2020

When Peter first meets Maria, she is reading “The Forgotten People,” a scholarly work by Gary B. Mills on the history and sociology of “Cane River’s Creoles of Color.”

From New York Times ● Feb. 6, 2020

There were only Creoles that summer at Lebrun’s.

From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin