an Italic language spoken in ancient Rome, fixed in the 2nd or 1st century b.c., and established as the official language of the Roman Empire. Abbreviation:L
2.
one of the forms of literary Latin, as Medieval Latin, Late Latin, Biblical Latin, or Liturgical Latin, or of nonclassical Latin, as Vulgar Latin.
3.
a native or inhabitant of Latium; an ancient Roman.
4.
a member of any of the Latin peoples, or those speaking chiefly Romance languages, esp. a native of or émigré from Latin America.
5.
a member of the Latin Church; a Roman Catholic, as distinguished from a member of the Greek Church.
–adjective
6.
denoting or pertaining to those peoples, as the Italians, French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc., using languages derived from Latin, esp. the peoples of Central and South America: a meeting of the Latin republics.
7.
of or pertaining to the Latin Church.
8.
of or pertaining to Latium, its inhabitants, or their language.
9.
of or pertaining to the Latin alphabet.
[Origin: bef. 950; ME, OE < L Latīnus.See Latium, -ine1]
Boston Latin School, at Boston; opened 1635 as a school for boys; one of the oldest free public schools in the United States. Many famous men attended the school, including five signers of the Declaration of Independence and four presidents of Harvard. In 1972 it became coeducational.
![[P]](http://cache.lexico.com/g/r/premium_mh.gif){kind=small}
Audio Help [lat-n] Pronunciation Key 