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mestizo

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

7 characters

Language

English

word origin

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "mestizo", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "mestizo" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "mestizo" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

mestizo is aEnglishnoun. It means: A person of mixed ancestry, especially one of Spanish and Native American heritage. Pronounced /mɛsˈtiː.zoʊ/.

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Key facts for mestizo
PropertyValue
Headwordmestizo
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/mɛsˈtiː.zoʊ/
Letters7
Frequency rank#67,643
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of mestizo in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for mestizo is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mɛsˈtiː.zoʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #67,643 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for mestizo in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Spanish mestizo, from Late Latin mixtīcius, from Latin mixtus (“mixed”). Doublet of metis, which came from French. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is mestizo, spelled M-E-S-T-I-Z-O, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A person of mixed ancestry, especially one of Spanish and Native American heritage.
  2. 2
    A person of mixed ancestry, especially one of Austronesian Filipino and Spanish or Chinese ancestry, such as that of the Spanish mestizos and Chinese mestizos from the Spanish Colonial Era of the Philippines.

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish mestizo, from Late Latin mixtīcius, from Latin mixtus (“mixed”). Doublet of metis, which came from French.

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #67,643 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mestizo"?
"mestizo" is spelled M-E-S-T-I-Z-O. The IPA pronunciation is /mɛsˈtiː.zoʊ/.
What does "mestizo" mean?
As a noun, "mestizo" means: A person of mixed ancestry, especially one of Spanish and Native American heritage.
How do you pronounce "mestizo"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mestizo" is /mɛsˈtiː.zoʊ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "mestizo"?
Borrowed from Spanish mestizo, from Late Latin mixtīcius, from Latin mixtus (“mixed”). Doublet of metis, which came from French. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.