Dominican Republic · Dominican Spanishaguaje
noun · Colloquial · ah-GWAH-heh
Bluster; a threat or boast with nothing behind it. 'Eso e' puro aguaje' is the standard verdict on someone loudly promising what they will not do.
+1 more sense
Dominican Republic · Dominican Spanish
Dominican Slang
Dominican Spanish is spoken fast and stripped down, and most of what makes it hard to follow is phonology rather than vocabulary. Syllable-final /s/ is aspirated or gone entirely — do' cerveza' fría', lo' muchacho' — so plurals survive only in the article, and the /d/ of every -ado participle disappears, giving guillao, desacatao, prendío. In the Cibao valley around Santiago, syllable-final /l/ and /r/ turn into an i: porque becomes poique and verdad becomes veidá. Once you can hear those three rules, a great deal of what sounded like unfamiliar slang turns out to be ordinary Spanish worn smooth.
The vocabulary itself has three layers worth separating. There is the old street lexicon of the capital, organised around the tíguere and his opposite the pariguayo. There is the New York layer, carried back and forth by a diaspora large enough that janguear and dominicanyork are as at home in Washington Heights as in Santo Domingo. And there is the dembow layer of the last decade — teteo, desacatao, viejevo — which has spread through Spanish-language music far beyond the island, and which has already pushed words like bonche into the parents' generation. The entries below say which layer a term belongs to, and flag the ones that are dated, regional or coarser than they look.
50 terms, each with definitions and worked examples.
By topic
Each page below collects every Dominican term we have on one subject, side by side.
Start with these
The terms below carry the most usage detail — register, origin and the situations where they go wrong. They are the ones worth reading in full before the rest.
All Dominican slang A–Z
50 terms
Terms beginning with A
Terms beginning with B
bellaco
adjective, noun · Vulgar · beh-YAH-koh
Horny. Of a person at a given moment, not a standing character trait — though 'un bellaco' as a noun does mean someone permanently in that condition.
+1 more sense
Use with care
bonche
noun · Dated · BON-cheh
A party or a night out. Perfectly comprehensible to everyone but now clearly the older generation's word — a Dominican under twenty-five says teteo or coro and hears bonche as something their parents say.
+1 more sense
bregar
verb · Colloquial · breh-GAR
To deal with something, to handle it — with the implication of effort and improvisation. 'Bregar con' takes a person or a problem: bregar con el tránsito, bregar con mi jefe.
+2 more senses
Terms beginning with C
chele
noun · Colloquial · CHEH-leh
A cent — and in practice, the smallest imaginable amount of money. It survives almost entirely in the negative: 'no tengo un chele', I haven't got a penny.
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chercha
noun · Colloquial · CHER-chah
Banter; loud, joking, teasing talk among a group. A chercha is a conversation whose purpose is the noise it makes, not the information in it.
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chin
noun, adverb · Colloquial · CHEEN
A little bit. 'Un chin' is the Dominican quantity word par excellence, used of sugar, time, money, patience and space alike.
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chopo
adjective, noun · Colloquial · CHOH-poh
Tacky, cheap, low-rent — of clothes, phones, parties or people. The insult is squarely about class, and Dominicans use it about each other with a frankness that surprises outsiders.
+1 more sense
Use with care
cocolo
noun, adjective · Colloquial · koh-KOH-loh
Originally, a black English-speaking migrant from the Lesser Antilles — the sugar-mill workers who settled around San Pedro de Macorís from the late nineteenth century, and their descendants, whose guloya dance troupes are now UNESCO-listed heritage.
+1 more sense
Use with care
concho
noun · Colloquial · KOHN-choh
A shared route taxi: an old saloon car that runs a fixed line and takes six or seven passengers, four of them across the back seat. The backbone of urban transport in Santo Domingo and Santiago.
+1 more sense
coño
interjection · Vulgar · KOH-nyoh
Damn it; bloody hell. An interjection of frustration, surprise or emphasis, thrown in several times a sentence by speakers who are annoyed.
+2 more senses
Use with care
coro
noun · Informal · KOH-roh
A hangout: the group of people and the occasion at once. '¿Y el coro?' asks both where everyone is and what is happening tonight.
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cuartos
noun · Colloquial · KWAR-tohs — the s is usually breathed away: KWAR-toh
Money, in general. The everyday Dominican word — dinero sounds like a form you are filling in, and plata belongs to other countries.
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cuero
noun · Vulgar · KWEH-roh
A prostitute; also, and far more commonly, any woman the speaker judges to sleep around. A serious insult with no male equivalent in use.
+1 more sense
Use with care
Terms beginning with D
deguabinao
adjective · Colloquial · deh-gwah-bee-NAH-oh
Limp, floppy, gone soft — of a person with no energy left, of a lettuce, of a plan that has lost its momentum.
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desacatao
adjective · Informal · des-ah-kah-TAH-oh
Out of control in the admiring sense — a party, a track or a performance going far beyond what was expected. The core dembow compliment of the last decade.
+1 more sense
diablo
interjection · Informal · DYAH-bloh
Damn; wow. The all-purpose Dominican reaction to a price, a piece of news, a goal or a good-looking passer-by. Far milder than its literal sense and usable in front of most people.
+1 more sense
dímelo
interjection, phrase · Informal · DEE-meh-loh
Talk to me — a greeting rather than a request for information. Answering a phone with it is normal, and so is saying it to someone walking past.
+1 more sense
dique
adverb, phrase · Colloquial · DEE-keh
Supposedly; apparently — and nearly always with the speaker's disbelief attached. 'Dique tá enfermo' means he says he is ill and I do not believe him.
+1 more sense
dominicanyork
noun, adjective · Colloquial · doh-mee-nee-can-YORK
A Dominican who lives in New York, or who has come back from it — and, as often, the manner that goes with it: the accent full of English, the clothes, the spending on a two-week visit.
+1 more sense
Use with care
duro
adjective · Informal · DOO-roh
Excellent, hard-hitting — said of a song, a goal, an outfit or a piece of work. 'Eso tá duro' is the standard verdict of approval.
+1 more sense
Terms beginning with F
fría
noun · Informal · FREE-ah
A cold beer — almost always a Presidente, and almost always the large bottle, la grande. 'Una fría' at a colmado will get you one without further discussion.
+1 more sense
fucú
noun, interjection · Colloquial · foo-KOO
Bad luck attached to a thing, a person or a name — a jinx. Not a metaphor for most speakers: saying certain words aloud is held to bring the fucú with them.
+1 more sense
Terms beginning with G
Terms beginning with J
jangueo
noun, verb · Informal · hahn-GEH-oh
Hanging out; going out with no fixed plan. The verb is janguear, and it covers everything from a street corner to a club.
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jevi
adjective · Informal · HEH-vee
Cool, great, impressive. A general-purpose compliment for objects, plans and events.
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jevo
noun · Informal · HEH-voh
A boyfriend or girlfriend — jevo for him, jeva for her. Lighter than novio: a jevo is who you are seeing, a novio is who you are committed to, and calling someone the wrong one starts arguments.
+1 more sense
jumo
noun · Informal · HOO-moh
A drunk; the state of being drunk. Always with coger: 'cogió un jumo' — he got hammered.
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Terms beginning with L
Terms beginning with M
mamagüevo
noun · Taboo · mah-mah-GWEH-voh
The strongest everyday Dominican insult, roughly the weight of 'cunt' in British English. Directed at a stranger it is an invitation to fight.
+1 more sense
Use with care
manín
noun · Informal · mah-NEEN
Bro, mate. A term of address between men who are friends or want to sound friendly. Warmer than loco and with none of its edge.
+1 more sense
matatán
noun · Informal · mah-tah-TAHN
The top man; the one nobody in the room outranks at whatever is being done. Applied to a musician, a mechanic or a neighbourhood boss with equal ease.
+1 more sense
Terms beginning with O
Terms beginning with P
palo
noun · Informal · PAH-loh
A shot or a measure of spirits, nearly always rum. 'Un palito' is the polite offer and 'un palo' the honest one.
+1 more sense
pariguayo
noun, adjective · Colloquial · pah-ree-GWAH-yoh
A sap; the man who stands at the edge of the party holding the drinks while other people dance with the girl he came with. The exact negative of a tíguere, and defined against it.
+1 more sense
pichar
verb · Informal · pee-CHAR
To ignore someone deliberately — to leave a message unanswered, to look past them in the street. What English has lately started calling ghosting, with a much longer history.
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poique
phrase · Regional · POY-keh
Porque — 'because' — as it is pronounced in the Cibao valley, where syllable-final /l/ and /r/ turn into an i. The same rule gives veidá for verdad, capitai for capital and cuaito for cuarto.
+2 more senses
prendío
adjective · Informal · pren-DEE-oh
Of a party or a place: going hard, full of people, at its peak. 'Esto tá prendío' is the announcement that the night has arrived.
+1 more sense
Terms beginning with Q
Terms beginning with S
sanky panky
noun · Colloquial · SAN-kee PAN-kee
A young Dominican man who works the resort towns romancing foreign women, with a visa, remittances or a standing allowance as the eventual goal. Bávaro, Sosúa and Boca Chica are the classic territory.
+1 more sense
servicio
noun · Informal · ser-VEE-syoh
A bottle of rum ordered with everything that goes with it — ice bucket, cups, and a bottle of cola or soda water. The standard unit of a night out at a colmadón or a car wash.
+1 more sense
Terms beginning with T
ta' to'
phrase, interjection · Informal · tah-TOH
All good; it's sorted; deal. The standard sign-off on an agreement and the standard answer to '¿qué lo que?'.
+1 more sense
teteo
noun · Informal · teh-TEH-oh
A party, and specifically the loud street-and-colmado kind that runs until the speakers are switched off. The word of the moment: it has displaced bonche almost entirely among under-thirties.
+2 more senses
tíguere
noun, adjective · Colloquial · TEE-geh-reh
The central character type of Dominican street life: quick-witted, unbothered by rules, good at getting by on nerve and improvisation. Admiring or damning depending entirely on who says it.
+2 more senses
tirar
verb · Informal · tee-RAR
To flirt with someone, to make a move — always with an indirect object: 'le estoy tirando'. The stage before anything has been agreed.
+1 more sense
Use with care
tumbe
noun · Colloquial · TOOM-beh
A rip-off, a stitch-up; also a robbery in the specific sense of taking something from someone who was themselves up to no good.
+1 more sense
Terms beginning with V
vagabundo
noun, adjective · Colloquial · vah-gah-BOON-doh
A scoundrel — someone dishonest, unfaithful or without scruples. It says nothing whatever about being homeless, which is the sense a Spanish or Mexican reader will reach for first.
+1 more sense
Use with care
vaina
noun · Colloquial · VY-nah
Thing — any object, situation, event or problem whose name is unavailable or not worth saying. The single most frequent noun in casual Dominican speech.
+2 more senses
viejevo
noun, adjective · Informal · vyeh-HEH-voh
A middle-aged man who dresses, talks and dates as though he were twenty — and specifically one who pursues much younger women. Mocking, never a compliment.
+1 more sense