nuyorican

Syllables: Nu·yor·ic·an/ˌnjuːjəˈɹiːkn̩/

nuyorican is the alternative letter-case form of Nuyorican.

Adjective capitalized: Nuyorican

Nuyorican (not comparable)

(informal) Of or relating to New Yorkers of Puerto Rican descent.
- English-speaking Nuyorican, Chicano, and Cuban writers know two verbs for to be and to know, and are obsessed with the past.1993, Ilan Stavans, “Foreword”, in Harold Augenbraum, Ilan Stavans, editors, Growing Up Latino: Memoirs and Stories (A Marc Jaffe Book), Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company...
- He [Joe Cuba] was an icon to New York's Puerto Rican community and can be considered a pioneer of "nuyorican" (New York Puerto Rican) culture.2009 April 3, Garth Cartwright, “Joe Cuba: Musician crowned ‘king of Latin Boogaloo’”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the...

Nuyorican (plural Nuyoricans)

(informal) A New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent.
- There are about 40 young men and women, largely second‐ and third-generation Puerto Rican New Yorkers who call themselves "Nuyoricans," in the crowded storefront cafe at 505 East Sixth Street, on the Lower East Side. Some are poets, some are listeners.1976 May 14, David Vidal, “‘Nuyoricans’ express pain and Joy in poetry”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Nov 2024...
- But the decade's spirit of questioning and mobilization also took hold among minorities, including New York City's more than three million Latinos—primarily Puerto Ricans, or "Newyoricans." […] In the wake of the Black Panthers, the Young Lords mobilized Newyoricans to demand fair treatment and...1995, Peter Manuel, “Latin Music in the New World Order: Salsa & Beyond”, in Ron Sakolsky, Fred Wei-han Ho, editors, Sounding Off!: Music As Subversion/Resistance/Revolution, Brooklyn, New York...

Nuyorican

(informal) The variety of Spanish spoken by New Yorkers of Puerto Rican descent.
- jesus is born speaking Nuyorican / eating tortillas con salchichas / to the rhythms of winter hot / conga drums that / lament an ice cold Christmas / that slips away under a slight / blanket of Christmas snow.1991, Miguel Algarín, “[Poets’ Sampler] Christmas Eve: Nuyorican Café”, in Faythe Turner, editor, Puerto Rican Writers at Home in the USA: An Anthology, Seattle, Wash.: Open Hand Publishing, →ISBN...
- And suddenly I became the interpreter for people who never realized my Andean mestizo Spanish was not always enough to relate to people who grew up on East 116th Street speaking Nuyorican.1997, K. J. A. Wishnia, chapter 2, in 23 Shades of Black, New York, N.Y.: Signet, Penguin Group, →ISBN, pages 48–49

Blend of New York + Puerto Rican (adjective, noun), possibly influenced by Spanish neoyorquino (“New Yorker”) or Nu(eva) Yor(k) (“New York”).

What does nuyorican mean?: Nuyorican means of or relating to New Yorkers of Puerto Rican descent.
What is nuyorican the alternative letter-case form of?: Nuyorican is the alternative letter-case form of Nuyorican.
What part of speech is nuyorican?: Nuyorican can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce nuyorican?: Nuyorican is pronounced /ˌnjuːjəˈɹiːkn̩/.

Adapted from Wiktionary: nuyorican (page history and authors); Nuyorican (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: 2026-09-02

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