Skip to the word

Added 9 October 2026

metis

/meɪˈtiː/ noun

Latin root: mixticius Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about metis at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A person of mixed-race ancestry.
Alternative letter-case form of Metis (“a member of one of three Canadian Aboriginal peoples; any person of mixed European and Indigenous descent”).
A person of one-eighth black ancestry; an octoroon.

adjective

Of mixed heritage
Of Métis heritage.

noun

Practical intelligence; street smarts.

Origin

Borrowed from French métis, from Late Latin mixticius, from Latin mixtus (“mixed”). Akin to mestizo, which came from Spanish. More at Metis.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word