mulatto

American  

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

noun

plural

mulattoes, mulattos

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

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

Example Sentences

He identifies as Black; she is multiracial and comfortable using the word “mulatto” to describe herself.

From Los Angeles Times

Ten years after, she has yet to finish her second book, which has bloomed into an elephantine “four-hundred-year history of mulatto people in fictional form” — what her husband Lenny calls a “mulatto ‘War and Peace.’”

From Los Angeles Times

About the same time, however, Jefferson advertised in The Virginia Gazette for the return of an enslaved mulatto shoemaker named Sandy.

From Literature

Morton identified Voorhees as “mulatto,” which some historians say in the 19th century often meant a Black person with mixed ancestry, including Indigenous ancestry.

From Science Magazine

But in her conversation with her cousin, she learned that census records showed that one of their ancestors, Webster’s fourth great-grandmother, had shifted in the 1800s from identifying as “mulatto” to “White” and started passing.

From Washington Post