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• 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.

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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

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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

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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

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

From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026

He spoke Creole at home and learned English at school.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026

The book he writes about Lalo develops his thesis that Creole culture embodies the “collective spirit” needed to heal a country riven by racial division and civil strife.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026

He has Creole roots through family members from New Orleans.

From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2025

I had to do it the other way around for those insurance people from Chrysler—translate my mother’s demands from Creole into English.

From "American Street" by Ibi Zoboi

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

Rather than making colonial society egalitarian, which had been the goal of Hidalgo and Morelos, the creole elite simply wanted to rule Mexico for themselves.

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

It’s actually her mother’s potato salad, and they’re Creoles.

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

About 150 miles west of New Orleans, Lafayette is known as the provincial capital of a region populated by French-speaking Cajuns and Creoles.

From New York Times ● Aug. 29, 2020

There were only Creoles that summer at Lebrun’s.

From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin