cuatro

American  

[kwot-roh] / ˈkwɒt roʊ /

Or quatro

noun

• cuatros
  plural

1. a small guitar with four or five strings or pairs of strings, used in Latin American and Caribbean music.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cuatros
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cuatro

First recorded in 1900–05; from Latin American Spanish, Spanish: literally, “four”; see origin at four ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cuatro cuatros

She learned how to play the cuatro from her father, whose family took refuge in Venezuela during the Spanish Civil War.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2025

In previous generations, his great-grandfather crafted and played the folk guitar called the cuatro, his uncles played congas and almost everybody danced at the Palladium Ballroom during the midcentury mambo craze.

From New York Times ● Sep. 15, 2021

A highlight is the first appearance of Yomo Toro, sometimes known as the Jimi Hendrix of cuatro, a rustic 10-string lute that explodes from the vinyl.

From New York Times ● Feb. 17, 2021

To serve, place each portion in a bowl, and add some of the cuatro leches mixture.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 29, 2019

A group of men showed up with a cuatro, a guitar, maracas, and güiros.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago

I The King Page 202 1 Veinte e cuatros, literally “twenty-fours,” aldermen or regidors in the town councils of certain towns in Andalusia.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 09 of 55 1593-1597 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century by Robertson, James Alexander