morro

See also: Morro, morrò, and morró

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish morro.

Noun

morro (plural morros)

1. A round hill or point of land.

Usage notes

• A Morro Castle is a castle on a hill.

Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *murrum, of unknown origin. Perhaps onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [ˈmu.ru]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia, Northwestern) [ˈmo.ro]
• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈmo.ru]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Noun

morro m (plural morros)

1. snout (long nose of an animal)

   Synonym: musell

2. nose (of a vehicle)

Derived terms

• amorrar
• beure a morro
• morral
• morrejar
• morrió
• morrut

Further reading

• “morro”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “morro”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “morro” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “morro”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Galician

Etymology 1

Unknown. From Vulgar Latin *murrum (“snout”); the word extends along the Iberian peninsula, southern France, Italy and south Germany, and is perhaps originally onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmoro̝/

Noun

morro m (plural morros)

1. snout

   Synonym: fociño

2. (figurative, colloquial, in the plural) lips

   Synonym: beizos

Related terms

• Morrazo

References

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “morro”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “morro”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “morro”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Etymology 2

Verb

morro

1. first-person singular present indicative of morrer

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmo.ʁu/ [ˈmo.hu]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmo.ʁu/ [ˈmo.hu]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˈmo.ʁu/ [ˈmo.χu]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmo.ʁo/ [ˈmo.ho]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈmo.ʁu/

• Rhymes: -oʁu
• Hyphenation: mor‧ro

Etymology 1

From Vulgar Latin *murrum, *morrum (“mound, hillock”), cognate with Occitan morre.

Noun

morro m (plural morros)

1. a landform with elevation intermediate between that of a hill and that of a small mountain
2. (Brazil, especially Rio de Janeiro) a slum built on a hill or on uneven ground

See also

• (hill): cerro (usually smaller than a morro), colina (smaller than a morro), monte (larger than a morro), outeiro
• (slum): bairro de lata (Portugal), favela (Brazil), musseque (Angola)

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

morro

1. first-person singular present indicative of morrer

Further reading

• “morro”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “morro”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *murrum, *morrum (“mound, hillock”), cognate with Occitan morre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmoro/ [ˈmo.ro]
• Rhymes: -oro
• Syllabification: mo‧rro

Noun

morro m (plural morros)

1. hill
2. snout (long nose of an animal)

   Synonyms: hocico, trompa

3. (figuratively) mouth

   Synonym: pico

4. hillock
5. cheek; cheekiness
6. pebble
7. headland
8. (colloquial, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador) Mexican calabash (Crescentia alata)

   Synonym: cutuco

Noun

morro m (plural morros, feminine morra, feminine plural morras)

1. (Mexico) kid

   Synonyms: morrito, cabro, chico, chavo, chaval, joven, muchacho, muchachito, chiquillo, nene, chamaco

   de morrito/a ― as a kid; when I was little

2. (Mexico) young man, guy, dude

   Synonyms: chico, chavo, muchacho, chaval, joven, mozo

Derived terms

• amorrar
• andar al morro
• beber a morro
• echarle morro
• estar de morro
• estar de morros
• jugar al morro
• morrear
• morrito
• pasar por los morros
• por el morro

Further reading

• “morro”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• “morro”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010