What does "siesta" mean?

A nap, especially an afternoon one taken during the hottest part of the day in some cultures.

What is a synonym for "siesta"?

Common synonyms include: doze, mañana, nap, nooning, nooning, repose.

//siˈɛstə// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A nap, especially an afternoon one taken during the hottest part of the day in some cultures. countable
"One humid afternoon a visitor did arrive to disturb Rottcodd as he lay deeply hammocked, for his siesta was broken sharply by a rattling of the door handle […]"
2
a nap in the early afternoon (especially in hot countries) wordnet
3
Laid-back attitudes to work or laziness, especially by a Hispanic person. attributive, offensive, sometimes
"Lest we think all of this is due to the proverbial inefficiency of the Latin American - 'siesta people' - we can see some of these signs, perhaps in a less dramatic way, in European societies and in the celebrated 'tigers' of South East Asia."

Verb

"He's not going to take a siesta."

Borrowed from Spanish siesta, from Latin sexta (“the sixth hour from dawn, noon, midday”). Doublet of sext.

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