Latinx refers to people of Latin American descent who live in the United States.* As an adjective, it can also describe places, concepts, objects, and ideas.**

  • The Latinx community is very diverse.
  • The exhibition celebrated Latinx heritage.

The “x” in latinx makes the term gender-neutral. The word American, for example, is gender neutral. You can’t assume gender or sex when you hear it. Earlier versions of latix, however, were not gender-neutral. Instead, latino referred to men while latina referred to women. For example:

  • Being latina always made me feel like I was a special girl.
  • Really? I didn’t know he was latino.

In these examples, the ‘o’ and ‘a’ at the end of ‘latin’ signifies a person’s gender. X, on the other hand, does not refer to any particular gender.

Check out the resources below to learn more. And please let us know if you have heard or used this term in other countries. *Seriously! We (the Language Snaps team) don’t know whether people of Latin American descent use this term in other countries.