mulatto

American  

[muh-lat-oh, -lah-toh, myoo-] / məˈlæt oʊ, -ˈlɑ toʊ, mju- /

noun

• mulattoes,
  plural
• mulattos
  plural

1. Anthropology. (not in technical use) the offspring of one white parent and one Black parent.

2. Older Use: Offensive. a person who has both Black and white ancestors.

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adjective

1. of a light-brown color.

mulatto British  

/ mjuːˈlætəʊ /

noun

1. a person having one Black and one White parent

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adjective

1. of a light brown colour

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• mulattoes
  plural
• mulattos
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mulatto

First recorded in 1585–95; from Spanish mulato “young mule,” equivalent to mul(o) mule ¹ + -ato of unclear origin

Compare meaning

How does mulatto compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• mestizo vs. mulatto
• octoroon vs. mulatto

Explanation

The noun mulatto is an outdated term for someone with one black parent and one white parent. This word is now considered to be offensive. It was common to describe a person with both black and white ancestry as a mulatto during the period of slavery in the United States. Because of its dehumanizing roots and usage, this word has fallen out of favor. Today, people are more likely to use terms like multiracial or mixed race — or simply to identify their specific cultural and ethnic heritage.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mulatto mulattoes mulattos

One archive lists her as mulatto, or mixed race, though her white father was unnamed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

“A Lot of Nothing” touches on microaggressions, colorism, class, gentrification, fertility, veganism and the sexual fantasies of a biracial Black woman who is this movie’s update on the tragic mulatto trope.

From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2023

A white doctor falls in love with a mulatto woman who has returned to Boston to raise money for a Southern school.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2019

A mulatto is a person of African and white ancestry.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2016

Records show that by the time of the American Revolution, an estimated 5 percent of Virginia’s enslaved population—totaling some 210,000 people in 1776—was considered mulatto.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

The leader in Jamaica and possibly of the entire Caribbean, if the blacks and mulattoes ever decide to work in harmony, is Norman Washington Manley, K.C.,

From Time Magazine Archive

The U. S. Census counts 20% of Negroes as mulattoes.

From Time Magazine Archive

On the one side are the prosperous and well-educated blacks and mulattoes with clipped British accents and comfortable homes in places like the Blue Mountains overlooking Kingston.

From Time Magazine Archive

Most of Luanda's 50,000 Europeans, some of its 50,000 mulattoes, and almost none of its 120,000 Africans responded.

From Time Magazine Archive

I am going to pray to St. Martin de Porres, the patron saint of mulattoes, for our cause in the factory.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

Next were the mulattos, persons of mixed European and African ancestry, and enslaved Africans.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2012

Their ideas grow out of a traditional obsession with the legal status of free blacks and mulattos in the decades before the Civil War.

From Salon ● May 4, 2011

Ms. Hills also spoke of the dance’s African-Argentine roots among the local mulattos and immigrants, principally in Rio de la Plata, a Buenos Aires suburb.

From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2010

Population: Spanish whites 950,000, mulattos 300,000, blacks 50,000.

From Time Magazine Archive

Toward the end of 1686 three galleys from St. Augustine landed about 150 men, Spaniards, Indians and mulattos, a few leagues below Charleston, and laid waste several plantations, including that of Governor Moreton.

From The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the XVII Century by Clarence Henry Haring