Word.ws English Dictionary

Latin

UK/ˈlæt.ɪn//ˈlæt.ɪn/

Latin adjective: of or relating to Latin: the language spoken in ancient Rome and other cities of Latium.

Adjective

Latin (not comparable)

  1. Of or relating to Latin: the language spoken in ancient Rome and other cities of Latium.
    • Africa was the natural leader because there the number of Christians who were of Roman origin and Latin speech was probably far greater than in so cosmopolitan a city as Rome.1948, L. E. Elliott-Binns, The Beginnings of Western Christendom, page 257
  2. Of or relating to the script of the language spoken in ancient Rome and many modern alphabets.
    • The Serbo-Croatian incunabula printed in Latin letters are indubitably the products of a very modest establishment.1968, Mladen Bošnjak, A Study of Slavic Incunabula, page 62
    Synonyms:
    Roman
  3. Of or relating to ancient Rome or its Empire.
    • The earliest Latin culture of Ireland was heavily indebted to that of Britain[…]2000, T. M. Charles-Edwards, Early Christian Ireland, page 176
    Synonyms:
    Roman
  4. Of or relating to Latium (modern Lazio), the region around Rome.
    • From the Campagna and the Latin hills, the flame of rebellion spread to Antium and Terracina, and to the most remote allies of the Romans, the cities of the Campanian plains.1913, Oscar Browning, A General History of the World, page 151
    Synonyms:
    Latian
  5. Of or relating to the customs and people descended from the ancient Romans and their Empire.
    • Major for joy, Minor for sadness, is apparently a significance which the German nations read into these scales; while the Semitic, Latin, and Slavic nations do not share this conception.1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 399
    • Therefore, although Portugal is a Latin culture, the significant African influence in Brazil creates a culture that cannot be defined simply as Latin; consequently, Brazilians prefer to define themselves as South American[…]2002, Dean Foster, The Global Etiquette Guide to Mexico and Latin America, page 11
    Synonyms:
    Romance
  6. Of or from Latin America or of Latin American culture.
    • As such, today's Latin music is a synthesis of European, African, and the few indigenous elements that remain.2008, Michael Miller, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music History, page 254
  7. Roman Catholic; of or pertaining to the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.
    • The Latin bishop now took the Greek bishop by the hand and conducted him to his throne[…]1901, John Hackett, A History of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, page 117

Proper noun (1)

Latin (countable and uncountable, plural Latins)

  1. (uncountable) The language of the ancient Romans, other Latins and of the Roman Catholic church, especially Classical Latin.
    • Supper being over, the lawyer took his leave, and the doctor began to ſound the learned clerk reſpecting his proficiency in the dead languages. "As to dead languages," replied the ſchoolmafter, "I was once a vaſt pretty ſcholar indeed, but want of exercise has made me main ſlack—I can't get over my...1799, Edward Dubois, A Piece of Family Biography, volume II, page 20
    • To Hall [Robert A. Hall, Jr.], the development would be something as follows: Latin > Proto-Romance (dated late Republic and Early Empire) > Proto-Continental Romance > Proto-Italo-Western Romance (to which Hall would limit the term "Vulgar Latin") > Proto-Western Romance > Proto-Gallo Romance...1999, Karl Strecker, transl. by Robert B. Palmer, Introduction to Medieval Latin: English Translation and Revision, 2nd ed. (2nd reprint of the ed. Dublin/Zürich 1971 (Berlin 1957)), Weidmann: Zürich...
  2. The Latin alphabet or writing system.
  3. The nonsense placeholder text (often based on real Latin) used in greeking.

Noun

Latin (plural Latins)

  1. (historical) A person native to ancient Rome or its Empire.
    • This appears incontestably from the manner in which the Latins wrote Greek words and names[…]1833, Philipp Buttmann, translated by Edward Robinson, A Greek grammar for the use of high schools and universities, page 23
    Synonyms:
    Roman
  2. (historical) A member of an Italic tribe that included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome, and from about 1000 BCE inhabited the region known as Old Latium.
    Synonyms:
    Latial, Latian
  3. A person from one of the modern European countries (including Italy, Spain etc.) whose language is descended from Latin.
    • No; the test of the contrast between modern Latins and modern Teutons is exactly like the test of the contrast between modern Latins and ancient Latins.1933, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, 'All I Survey': a book of essays, page 148
    • Latins are always conspicuously dangerous when they are serving an unpopular cause for money.1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 760
  4. A person from Latin America.
    • In the use of patent medicine the average Latin resembles the American of fifty years ago, who generally had a bottle of some concoction on which he depended whenever he felt out of sorts.1922, William Edmund Aughinbaugh, Advertising for trade in Latin-America, page 150
    • A great country will be when men and women, Africans and Europeans and Latins and Asians are accepted as human, as valuable1986, Daniel Garrett, “Creating Ourselves: An Open Letter”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 100
  5. A person adhering to Roman Catholic practice.
    • The modern Latins have been in the habit of blaming the Greek and other Eastern Liturgies for not consecrating by the recital of OUR SAVIOUR'S words of Institution[…]1853, William Palmer, Dissertations on Subjects Relating to the "Orthodox" or "Eastern-Catholic" Communion, page 118

Proper noun (2)

Latin (plural Latins)

  1. A surname from Middle English.

Latin meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

Latin in Hindi

of the language
लातिन lātin, लातीनी lātīnī, लातिनी lātinī
language of the ancient Romans
लैटिन laiṭin, लातिन lātin, लातिन भाषा lātin bhāṣā, लातीनी lātīnī, लातिनी lātinī

Latin in Tamil

of ancient Rome
ரோம rōma
of the language
இலத்தீன் ilattīṉ
of the script
இலத்தீன் ilattīṉ
language of the ancient Romans
இலத்தீன் ilattīṉ

Latin in Urdu

language of the ancient Romans
لاطینی زبان lātīnī zabān

Latin in Bengali

of the language
ল্যাটিন lêṭin
language of the ancient Romans
লাতিন ভাষা latin bhaśa
More languagesFewer languages
Latin in Telugu
లాటిను lāṭinu, రోమను rōmanu
Latin in Malayalam
ലത്തീൻ ഭാഷ
Latin in Kannada
ಲ್ಯಾಟಿನ್
Latin in Sinhala
ලතින් latin, ලතින් භාෂාව latin bhāṣāwa
Latin in Arabic
لَاتِينِيّ lātīniyy, الرُّومِيَّة ar-rūmiyya, الرُّومِيّ ar-rūmiyy, اللَّاتِينِيَّة al-lātīniyya
Latin in Malay
bahasa Latin, bahasa Rumawi, Latin, Rumi
Latin in Thai
ภาษาละติน paasăa ládtin, ละติน lá-dtin
Latin in Vietnamese
La Mã, Latinh, chữ Latinh, Mỹ Latinh
Latin in Myanmar
လက်တင် laktang, လက်တင်ဘာသာစကား laktangbhasaca.ka:

Examples of Latin in a sentence

  • And, Lord bleſs you! my Latin is of no more uſe to me here than—than—" Here he ſtuck for want of a ſimile; when Mr.1799, Edward Dubois, A Piece of Family Biography, volume II, page 20:
  • When the Christian Church rose in stature in the Dark Ages, its adoption of Latin as the official language assured its eternal life.2003, Natalie Harwood, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Latin, 2nd edition, page 13:
  • Like Copernicus and Galileo, Johannes Kepler was a renowned astronomer who wrote in Latin.2010, Elizabeth Heimbach, A Roman Map Workbook, page 134:

Synonyms of Latin

All synonyms of Latin

Forms of Latin

Proper noun
pluralLatins
Noun
pluralLatins

Origin of Latin

From Middle English Latyn, Latyne, Latin, from Old French latin, latyn, from Latin latīnus, from Latium (“the region around Rome”) + -īnus (adjective suffix). Displaced or merged with Old English Lǣden. Doublet of Ladin and Ladino.

From Middle English Latin, Latyn, from Old English Lǣden, from Vulgar Latin *ladinum (“Latin”) and Old French latin (“Latin”); all from Latin Latinus (“belonging to Latium”). Later influenced in form by the Latin word. Compare Dutch Latijn (“Latin”), German Latein (“Latin”), Swedish Latin (“Latin”).

Metonymic occupational surname for a Latinist, a clerk or keeper of Latin records, from Middle English Latyn. Compare Latimer.

Words formed from Latin

Phrases with Latin

29 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with Latin

Questions about Latin

What does Latin mean?
Latin means of or relating to Latin: the language spoken in ancient Rome and other cities of Latium.
What is Latin in Hindi?
Latin in Hindi is लातिन (lātin), लातीनी (lātīnī), लातिनी (lātinī). See Latin meaning in Hindi.
How do you use Latin in a sentence?
And, Lord bleſs you! my Latin is of no more uſe to me here than—than—" Here he ſtuck for want of a ſimile; when Mr.
What part of speech is Latin?
Latin can be an adjective, a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Latin?
Latin is pronounced /ˈlæt.ɪn/ (UK).

Words near Latin in the dictionary

  1. latimeriids
  2. latimeroid
  3. latimeroids
  4. latimers
  5. Latimore
  6. Latin
  7. Latin alphabet
  8. Latin alphabets
  9. Latin alphas
  10. Latin America
  11. Latin American

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Latin (page history and authors); latin (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Latin (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-Latin.ogg.

Cite this entry: “Latin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/latin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.