hombre

hom·bre
H4O1M3B3R1E1
UK/ˈɒmbɹeɪ/UK/-bɹi/US/ˈɑmbɹeɪ/US/ˈʌmbɹeɪ/

noun

Man, chap, guy; especially a Hispanic or Spanish man.

“that gunslinger is one bad hombre”

Less commonScrabble 13

Meanings

nounhombre (plural hombres)

plural hombres

  1. USespeciallyslangMan, chap, guy; especially a Hispanic or Spanish man.

    that gunslinger is one bad hombre

    5 more examples

    [W]e're glad to learn that the Yankee bullet has not quite stopped your breath. You're all right, hombre!

    c. 1850, [Thomas] Mayne Reid, “A Group of Jarochos”, in The Guerilla^([sic]) Chief, and Other Tales, London: C. H. Clarke, 13, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 62

    That hombre now with the worn out hat, tattered shirt, and fragmentary breeches, wears a sword. Bless you, his dignity would suffer greatly without it!

    1852 March 8, E. P., “Golden Correspondence.—No. 1”, in J[oseph] M. Church, editor, Church’s Bizarre. For Fireside and Wayside, volume I, number 1 (New Series), Philadelphia, Pa.: Church & Co., 140 Chestnut Street, published 17 April 1852, →OCLC, page 9, column 2

    Coming towards us was the biggest, meanest looking hombre I'd ever seen.

    1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 92

    The foreman. As tough an hombre who ever lived. If Mr. Bell had sent Jackson instead of me, he'd take your rifle and beat you half to death with it.

    2010, Jon Sharpe [pseudonym], chapter 1, in Rocky Mountain Revenge (The Trailsman; no. 342), New York, N.Y.: Signet Books, New American Library, →ISBN

    There was a pause I didn't like, punctuated by shrieks of shrill laughter from the hombres at the bar. Only Mexicans can laugh like that.

    2016, Lawrence Winkler, “Bajada”, in Orion’s Cartwheel (Cartwheels Quadrilogy; 1), Victoria, B.C.: First Choice Books, →ISBN, page 22

Synonyms & antonyms

nounan informal term for a youth or man

Broader
manadult male

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeǵʰ-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*dʰéǵʰōm
  3. Proto-Indo-European*ǵʰmṓ
  4. Proto-Italic*hemō
  5. Latinhemō
  6. Latinhomō
  7. Latinhominem
  8. Old Spanishomne
  9. Spanishhombre
  10. Englishhombre

Borrowed from Spanish hombre (“man; human being”). Doublet of gome, homo, ombre, and omi.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

hombre. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hombre

MLA

“hombre.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hombre. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hombre,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hombre.

Source: hombre on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.