ethnic

/ˈɛθ.nɪk/adjective, noun

ethnic is spelled E-T-H-N-I-C: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,076th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, ethnic means “Of or relating to a group of people having common racial, ancestral, national, religious or cultural origins” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in ethnic?

Letters	6: E-T-H-N-I-C
Syllables	2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	21 times per million words; the 4,076th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is ethnic?

Ethnic appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,076th most frequent word form in the list.

ethnic0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce ethnic?

/ˈɛθ.nɪk/

Ethnic has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-ethnic.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of ethnic

more ethnic comparative
most ethnic superlative
ethnics plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does ethnic mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

1
Of or relating to a group of people having common racial, ancestral, national, religious or cultural origins.
2
Characteristic of a foreign or a minority group's culture.
I like to eat ethnic food
3
Representative of a folk or traditional mode of expression.
4
Heathen, not Jewish, Christian, or Muslim.

noun

1
An ethnic person, especially a foreigner or member of an immigrant community.
2
archaicA heathen, a pagan.
3
The demonym of an Ancient Greek city.
Coinage with the ethnic ΑΝΤΙΟΧΕΩΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΕΥΦΡΑΤΗΝ survives from the mid-second century A.D.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Ethnic in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
French	ethnique (of or relating to a group of people)
German	ethnisch (of or relating to a group of people), exotisch, ausländisch, international (belonging to a foreign culture), Fremder, Ausländer (ethnic person, notably when foreigner or…)
Portuguese	étnico (of or relating to a group of people)
Spanish	étnico (of or relating to a group of people)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.