brazilian

brazilian — adjective

IPA/brəˈzɪliən/
KK[brəzˈɪljən]IPA/brəˈzɪliən/
  • brazilianpositive
  • more braziliancomparative
  • most braziliansuperlative

1. connected with Brazil, its people, its culture, or things that come from there.

1.adjectiveA2
Definition

connected with Brazil, its people, its culture, or things that come from there.

Example

The cafe serves Brazilian coffee, cheese bread, and sweet milk pudding.

describes food and drink from Brazil

Ravi learned Brazilian dance steps before the school culture festival.

modifies cultural activities and styles

Common collocations
  • Brazilian coffee
  • Brazilian music
  • Brazilian art
  • Brazilian airline
  • Brazilian culture
Synonyms
  • from Brazil

    plain descriptive phrase; useful when you want to avoid a nationality adjective

  • Brazil-based

    narrower; mainly for companies or workers located in Brazil

Usage Note

Usually comes before a noun and keeps a capital B. Common collocates are food, music, art, companies, and people linked with Brazil.

Common Mistakes

I like brazilian music.
I like Brazilian music.
nationality adjectives are written with a capital letter.
She bought Brazil coffee.
She bought Brazilian coffee.
use the adjective 'Brazilian' before a noun, not the country name 'Brazil'.

brazilian — noun

IPA/brəˈzɪl.jən/
KK[brəzˈɪljən]IPA/brəˈzɪl.jən/

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Brazilian is the broad everyday word for connection with Brazil: Brazilian music, Brazilian food, a Brazilian student. Brazilian-born is narrower and only describes people whose place of birth matters, especially in biographies: a Brazilian-born actor now living in Japan. Brazil-based is narrower again; it is mainly for companies, teams, or reporters working in Brazil, not for nationality or culture. South American is wider than Brazilian because it includes many countries on the continent, such as Peru, Chile, and Argentina. So a singer from Rio is both Brazilian and South American, but coffee from Colombia is South American, not Brazilian. Compare a Brazilian restaurant, a Brazil-based airline, and a South American trade group.

Brazilian ↗Brazilian-bornBrazil-basedSouth American

Etymology

PortugueseEnglish

Brazilian is formed from the country name Brazil and the suffix -ian. Brazil came into English through Portuguese and is linked to brazilwood, a tree once traded for its red dye; that name goes back to a Portuguese word related to glowing embers, referring to the wood's colour.