latte

Ellipsis of caffè latte, from Italian caffellatte, ultimately from Latin lac, lactis.

• latté (nonstandard)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈlɑː.teɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlɑ.teɪ/
• (Hong Kong) IPA^(key): /laˈteɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æteɪ, -ɑːteɪ

latte (countable and uncountable, plural lattes)

2. A drink of coffee made from espresso and steamed milk, generally topped with foam.

   Synonyms: caffè latte, cafe latté, coffee latté

   Coordinate terms: cafe au lait, flat white

   • 1991, Jayne Ann Krentz, chapter 12, in Sweet Fortune, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 208:

     Lilian Benedict walked into the office carrying two cups of latte.

   • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 4 August 2020, page 68:

     Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […] . In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.

   • 2023 November 2, Danielle Wiener-Bronner, “Starbucks is leaning into its sugary concoctions to boost the business”, in CNN Business‎^[2]:

     High-priced lattes and customized drinks helped lift the coffee chain’s US sales in the quarter ending on October 1, the company said Thursday.

   • 2024 February 20, Jessie Yeung and Hassan Tayir, “Pork flavored coffee is Starbucks’ newest China pitch”, in CNN Business‎^[3]:

     Photos of the drink, posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo by the Shanghai Starbucks Reserve Roastery, show a drizzle of dark red sauce atop the latte foam — with a square slice of pork on a skewer resting on the mug rim.

4. (by extension) A similar drink, where the espresso is replaced with some other flavoring ingredient such as chai, maté or matcha (green tea).

   matcha latte

5. (figurative, informal, attributive) Affluent leftism.

   latte liberal

   • 2025 September 4, Sam Wolfson, quoting Newt Gingrich, “Latte-swilling ‘performative males’: why milky drinks are shorthand for liberal”, in The Guardian‎^[4], →ISSN:

     Newt Gingrich accused New York mayor Bill De Blasio of “small soy latte liberalism” in 2014 – emphasising that the only thing more girlish than drinking a big dairy milky coffee was drinking a small vegan milky coffee.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlæ.ti/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

latte (plural lattes)

1. A pillar capped by a hemispherical stone capital with the flat side facing up, used as building supports by the ancient Chamorro people and now used as a sign of Chamorro identity.

• attle

• Category:latte on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

latte

1. plural of lat

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɑ.tə/, /ˈlɑ.teː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: lat‧te
• Rhymes: -ɑtə, -ɑteː

latte c (plural lattes or latte's, no diminutive)

1. latte (coffee drink)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɑ.tə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: lat‧te
• Rhymes: -ɑtə

latte

1. inflection of latten:
   1. singular past indicative
   2. (dated or formal) singular past/present subjunctive

From Italian (caffè) latte, probably through English latte.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɑtːe/, [ˈlɑ̝t̪ːe̞]
• Rhymes: -ɑtːe
• Syllabification^(key): lat‧te
• Hyphenation^(key): lat‧te

latte

1. caffè latte (espresso coffee with steamed milk)

• “latte”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[5] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

• eltta, telta

Inherited from Middle French latte, from Old French latte, late, from a Germanic source, probably Frankish *latta, from Proto-Germanic *lattō. See also German Latte, Dutch lat, and English lath and lattice.

• IPA^(key): /lat/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

latte f (plural lattes)

1. lath
2. slat
3. (Belgium) ruler (measuring device)
4. (slang) shoe; foot
5. (slang) hit, puff
6. (colloquial) ski
7. (nautical) batten

• → Ottoman Turkish: لاطه (lata)
  • Turkish: lata
  • → Armenian: լաթա (latʻa)

• “latte”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• IPA^(key): /ˈlat.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -atte
• Hyphenation: làt‧te

From Late Latin lactem, accusative of Late Latin lactis.

latte m (countable and uncountable, plural latti, diminutive-endearing lattùccio or latticèllo)

1. milk

• English: latte

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

latte

1. plural of latta

• colostro

• Letta, letta

From Late Latin lactem, from Latin lac. Cognate with Sicilian latti.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlattə/

latte m

1. milk

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 1201: “colare il latte” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it

From Old French latte, late, from a Germanic source, probably Frankish *latta.

latte f (plural lattes)

1. (Jersey) lath

Unadapted borrowing from Italian latte.

• IPA^(key): /ˈla.tɛ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -atɛ
• Syllabification: la‧tte
• Homophone: Latę

latte n or f (indeclinable)

1. (colloquial) caffè latte (espresso coffee with steamed milk)

   Synonym: caffè latte

latte (not comparable, no derived adverb)

1. latte (color)

   Synonym: jasnobeżowy

• latte I in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• latte II in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• latte in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from Italian latte. Doublet of leite.

• Hyphenation: lat‧te
• Homophone: late

latte m (plural lattes)

1. caffè latte (espresso coffee with steamed milk)

• “latte”, in Dicionário Eletrônico Houaiss [Houaiss Electronic Dictionary] (in Portuguese), São Paulo: UOL, 2004–2026

• latti (Campidanese)

From Late Latin lactem, from Latin lac.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlatte/

latte m (plural lattes)

1. milk