gringo

Borrowed from Spanish gringo, from griego (“Greek”), used for anyone who spoke an unintelligible language. Doublet of Greek.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɪŋɡəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɪŋɡoʊ/

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋɡəʊ

gringo (plural gringos or gringoes)

1. (chiefly Hispanic slang, humorous or derogatory) A white person from an English-speaking country, particularly the United States.
   • 2017, B. M. Bower, The Gringos: The Tale of the California Gold Rush Days:

     Truly it is as Don José tells me; these gringos have come but to make trouble where all was peace.

   • 2026 February 23, Belén Fernández, “El Mencho’s killing won’t solve Mexico’s cartel problem – or anything else”, in Al Jazeera English‎^[1], archived from the original on 3 March 2026:

     Indeed, much like her predecessor and mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum has perfected the art of doing the gringos’ dirty work while purporting to act in a “sovereign” fashion – and even to defy the imperial overlords to the north.

• See Thesaurus:white person

• gringa (female)
• gringophobia

• gringo on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Goring, goring, orging

Borrowed from Spanish gringo.

• Rhymes: -ĩɡu
• Hyphenation: gri‧go

gringo m (plural gringos, feminine gringa, feminine plural gringas)

1. (Brazil, colloquial) a foreigner

   Synonym: estrangeiro

   Aquele cara ali é um gringo.

   That dude over there is a foreigner.

2. (Rio Grande do Sul, colloquial) someone of Italian or (more broadly) European descent.

   Synonym: colono

gringo (feminine gringa, masculine plural gringos, feminine plural gringas)

1. (Brazil, colloquial) foreign (from another country, especially from the Global North)

   Comprei um telefone gringo.

   I bought a foreign-made telephone.

• Compared to English and Spanish gringo, Portuguese gringo is not as often derogatory. Its usage varies between speakers and can have a broader meaning if compared to English and Spanish^[1]:
  • It can refer to any foreigner — common use of the term as seen in news reports.
  • It can refer to people from the Global North exclusively, especially from Western Europe, the US and Canada — commonly seen in social media.
  • It can refer only to Americans — rare usage.

• “gringo”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “gringo”, in Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisboa: Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, 2001–2026
• “gringo”, in Dicionário Infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “gringo”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026
• “gringo”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2026, →ISBN
• gringo § Brazil on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Possibly from griego (“Greek”), particularly from the phrase hablar en griego (“to speak Greek”), with a similar connotation to the English phrase it's all Greek to me. Possibly influenced by peregrino (“pilgrim”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɾinɡo/ [ˈɡɾĩŋ.ɡo]
• Rhymes: -inɡo
• Syllabification: grin‧go

gringo m (plural gringos, feminine gringa, feminine plural gringas) (sometimes derogatory)

1. (much of Latin America) an American (anyone from the United States, sometimes including Puerto Ricans)

   Synonyms: estadounidense, yanqui

   • 2008 October 8, Antonio Caballero, “El negro gringo (o el gringo negro)”, in Semana‎^[2], retrieved 1 August 2014:

     Pero la realidad es más terca que la corrección política, y el hecho real es que Barack Obama, próximo presidente de los Estados Unidos, es un gringo, y es un negro. O, si se prefiere así, es un negro, y es un gringo.

     But the reality is more stubborn than political correctness, and the fact is that Barack Obama, the next president of the United States, is a gringo, and is black. Or, if you so prefer, is black, and is a gringo.

2. (Peru) a light-skinned foreigner
3. (regional, loosely) someone from the Anglosphere
   • 1786, Esteban de Terroros y Pando, Beatriz Varela, Diccionario castellano con las voces de Ciencias y Artes y sus correspondientes en las 3 lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, →ISBN; quoted in “Ethnic nicknames of Spanish origin in American English”, in Félix Rodríguez González, editor, Spanish Loanwords in the English Language: A Tendency towards Hegemony Reversal‎^[3], Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996, page 143:

     ... gringos, llaman en Málaga a los extranjeros, que tienen cierta especie de acento, que los priva de una locución fácil, y natural Castellana; y en Madrid dan el mismo, y por la misma causa con particularidad a los irlandeses.

     gringos is what, in Malaga, they call foreigners who have a certain kind of accent that prevents them from speaking Castilian easily and naturally; and in Madrid they give the same name, in particular, to the Irish.

• In Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, gringo is not as common and yanqui/yankee/yanki is typically used instead for Americans.
• In Brazil, Portuguese gringo can refer to any foreigner.

• agringar
• gringo de agua juca (Honduras)
• Gringolandia, gringolandia f
• Gringotenango
• gringuera f (Honduras)

• → English: gringo
• → Japanese: グリンゴ
• → Portuguese: gringo
• → Swedish: gringo

gringo (feminine gringa, masculine plural gringos, feminine plural gringas)

1. (much of Latin America) American

   Synonym: estadounidense

• chele (Honduras)
• cholo
• grencho (Honduras)
• güero
• pocho
• guiri

• “gringo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• Comprehensive etymology tracing it to before the Mexican–American War

gringo c

1. a gringo

• “gringo”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “gringo”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)