creole means pertaining to or characteristic of someone who is a Creole. It carries an Arena rating of 1530, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, creole ranks #659 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,110 of 17,106 for Most Storied Words, #4,397 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #6,130 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
creole is pronounced /ˈkɹiːəʊl/.
Why “creole” is a great word
A stable, natural language that develops from the mixing and simplification of parent languages to become the native tongue of a community, or a person of European or African descent born in the colonies. From French *créole*, from Spanish *criollo*, from Portuguese *crioulo*, meaning 'person raised in the house,' especially a servant born in the master's household, from *criar* ('to rear, to bring up'), from Latin *creare* ('to create, produce'), first attested in English c. 1600. Unlike a 'pidgin,' a makeshift contact tongue without native speakers, or 'métis,' which specifies mixed Indigenous and European ancestry, a creole is a linguistic and cultural birthright forged in displacement. It is the grammatical complexity flowering from a trade-post patois, the scent of okra stew simmering in a New Orleans courtyard where French once met West African tongues, and the quiet resilience of a child speaking fluently what her ancestors only dreamed into being—the sound of survival, refined into home.
Etymology
Attested in English to refer to language from the 18th century.
adj
- Pertaining to or characteristic of someone who is a Creole.
- That is a Creole; especially, born in a colonized country different from that of his or her ancestors.
- Designating a creolized language.
- Prepared according to a cooking style developed in a Creole area, now especially that of Louisiana, characterised by a mixture of European and African influences.
name
- Any specific creole language, especially that of Haiti.e.g.“She grew up speaking Creole.”
noun
- A language formed from two or more languages which has developed from a pidgin to become a first language.
- A style of hoop earrings with a hoop that has an inconsistent thickness and/or is elongated in shape.
- A descendant of European settlers who is born in a colonized country.
- Anyone with mixed ancestry born in a country colonized by Europeans, now especially one who speaks a creole language.
- Someone of African descent who is born in the Caribbean or Americas (originally as opposed to an African immigrant).
- A native-born of Francophone descent in the Louisiana territory of any race, as opposed to Anglo-American settlers.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- criollo 75% match — A member of a social class, in the 16th-century Spanish colonies, who were born in the colonies but had European lineage. vs creole →
- creolean 71% match — Relating to, or characteristic of, the Creole people. vs creole →
- creolism 68% match — The mixed ancestry of a Creole person. vs creole →
- creoleness 62% match — The quality or characteristic of being a Creole. vs creole →
- creolist 62% match — A linguist who studies creole languages. vs creole →
- postcreole 61% match — After a creole; after decreolization has taken place. vs creole →
- creoloid 61% match — A language that resembles a creole but did not go through the pidgin stage. vs creole →
- caribbean 60% match — Pertaining to the sea and region of the western Atlantic bounded by South America, Central America, and the islands of the West Indies (such as Cuba and Hispaniola). vs creole →