Portuguese

PluralPortuguese

1. 1
   adjective

   Of, from, or relating to the country of Portugal.

   Portuguese wines are exported all over the world.

   The Portuguese government announced new protections for its Atlantic coastline.

   Note

   English borrowed the word whole from the language it names: Portuguese português. This is the sense of place and map, as in Portuguese borders, or the central Portuguese mountains where a British commander set up headquarters at Viseu in Roger Parkinson's The Peninsular War (1973). It covers the land itself, while the cultural sense covers the people and their ways.

2. 2
   proper noun

   A Romance language that originated in Portugal and is now the official language of Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor.

   He studied Portuguese for two years before moving to Lisbon.

   Official documents in Mozambique are written in Portuguese.

   Note

   The language's reach shows in place names far from Portugal. In Macau, the name Taipa means "mudflats" in Portuguese, and its Cantonese name Tam-zai means the same, so one place carries two names from two languages. Linguists also compare it with its Romance neighbors Catalan, Spanish and Romanian, and it differs from them in how freely it orders words in indirect questions.

3. 3
   adjective

   Associated with Portugal's people or with their culture and way of life.

   Fado music holds a central place in Portuguese culture.

   The festival celebrated Portuguese traditions of tile-making and folk dance.

4. 4
   adjective

   Having to do with the Portuguese language, as spoken or written.

   Portuguese pronunciation features nasal vowels that English speakers often find difficult.

   She corrected the Portuguese spelling throughout the translated document.

5. 5
   nouncountableplural

   A person who is a native or inhabitant of Portugal.

   The bakery's owner, a Portuguese from Porto, sells fresh custard tarts every morning.

   Thousands of Portuguese emigrated to the United States in the twentieth century.

   Note

   Mostly a collective word, as in the Portuguese, and its plural is identical to its singular. The older plural Portugueses is archaic and belongs in historical writing rather than modern use. The singular does still appear, as in the howling Portuguese of Rudyard Kipling's Captains Courageous (1897), but the people as a group is the commoner use.

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