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SPANISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ladino.

astute, crafty, acute

6 characters3 syllables approx.Español language

Meaning & usage

adj/laˈdino/[laˈð̞i.no]

  1. astute, crafty, acute

  2. mestizo

    El-Salvador · Guatemala · Honduras · Mexico · Nicaragua · Panama
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Latin latīnus; compare latín, latino, doublets which were borrowed later. Compare also Portuguese ladino (“learned, cultured”). The sense of "astute" or "crafty" developed from medieval times, when the word was used to describe scholars and learned people, who were familiar with Latin and were involved in a process of "Latinization", i.e. using and incorporating learned terms. It was also used as a general designation for Romance speakers in the Middle Ages, as opposed to others speaking different kinds of languages, especially Arabic in the context of Spain/Iberia (compare the name of Ladino, the Sephardic Jewish language of Spain, descended from a form of Old Spanish, as well as the Ladin of northern Italy). The sense of "mestizo" developed in colonial Central America when the term was originally applied to those indigenous people who came to speak only Spanish.

noun/laˈdino/[laˈð̞i.no]

  1. a mestizo person

    masculine

  2. a black slave able to speak Spanish

    historical · masculine
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Latin latīnus; compare latín, latino, doublets which were borrowed later. Compare also Portuguese ladino (“learned, cultured”). The sense of "astute" or "crafty" developed from medieval times, when the word was used to describe scholars and learned people, who were familiar with Latin and were involved in a process of "Latinization", i.e. using and incorporating learned terms. It was also used as a general designation for Romance speakers in the Middle Ages, as opposed to others speaking different kinds of languages, especially Arabic in the context of Spain/Iberia (compare the name of Ladino, the Sephardic Jewish language of Spain, descended from a form of Old Spanish, as well as the Ladin of northern Italy). The sense of "mestizo" developed in colonial Central America when the term was originally applied to those indigenous people who came to speak only Spanish.

noun/laˈdino/[laˈð̞i.no]

  1. the Ladin language of Italy

    masculine · uncountable

  2. Ladino, Judeo-Spanish

    masculine · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Taken from the proper names of the languages.

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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.