overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

patois.

A regional dialect (usually one considered nonstandard) of a language (especially French).

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pæˈtwɑ/General-American/ˈpæ.twɑː/Received-Pronunciation/pæˈtwɑz/General-American/ˈpæ.twɑːz/Received-Pronunciation

  1. A regional dialect (usually one considered nonstandard) of a language (especially French).

    countable · uncountable

  2. Any of various French, Franco-Provençal or Occitan dialects spoken in France.

    countable · uncountable

  3. Creole French in the Caribbean (especially in Dominica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti).

    countable · uncountable

  4. Ellipsis of Jamaican Patois.

    Jamaica · abbreviation · alt-of · countable · ellipsis · uncountable

  5. Jargon or cant.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French patois (“regional dialect or language”), c. 1635.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

patois has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

patois studiopatois workshello, patois

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.