What does "tejano" mean?

A Spanish colonial settler of the region that later became Texas.

What is a synonym for "tejano"?

Common synonyms include: tejano music, tex-mex music, tex-mexican, texican.

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A Spanish colonial settler of the region that later became Texas. countable, historical, uncountable
"But when Santa Anna’s forces invaded the renegade province, Seguín and other Tejano leaders joined the secessionists in proclaiming an independent Republic of Texas"
2
A Texan (especially male) of Mexican descent. countable, uncountable
3
Various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas. uncountable
"Calderon points out as evidence an increase in Tejano record sales worldwide, and the meteoric rise of the young late Tejano recording artist, Selena Quintanilla-Perez."

"Selena Gomez was named after the Tejano singer Selena."

From Spanish tejano, originally a translation of Texan from English.

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