Patois

//pæˈtwɑ// name, noun

name, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A regional dialect (usually one considered substandard) of a language (especially French). countable, uncountable

    "[The Sundanese] are regarded as relatively barbarous, and in the company of Malays or Javanese, they are themselves ashamed of their dialect, which is looked on as a sort of rude patois."

  2. 2
    a regional dialect of a language (especially French); usually considered substandard wordnet
  3. 3
    Any of various French or Occitan dialects spoken in France. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves) wordnet
  5. 5
    Creole French in the Caribbean (especially in Dominica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti). countable, uncountable
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  1. 6
    Jamaican Patois, a Jamaican creole language based primarily on English and African languages but also having influences from Spanish, Portuguese, and Hindi. Jamaica, countable, uncountable
  2. 7
    Jargon or cant. countable, uncountable

    "In the patois of insurance, the winery will go bare into this year’s burning season, which experts predict to be especially fierce."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative form of Patwa. alt-of, alternative

Synonyms

All synonyms
cantacadiananglo-indianargotargotbrooklynese

Example

More examples

"In the sunny blue-sky morning of the 13th of April of 2023, I was sitting in the teahouse drinking my iced black tea. Lizbeth the Mexican came through the door, and we greeted each other, she still teaching Dance Fitness and Zumba at several schools here on Lulu Island. I suppose some people at the teahouse miss the noisy patois of Taglish of Greg and me. I was just reading my Japanese-language fantasy book Tabi no Nakama, or The Fellowship of the Ring, of the famous J.R.R. Tolkien. Walking back to my house, I saw Nikki the Cypriot Greek and her Korean neighbour, as they continued their six rounds around the neighbourhood block."

Etymology

Borrowed from French patois (“regional dialect or language”), c. 1635.

Related phrases

jamaican patoisst luciatrinidad and tobago

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.