"usted" meaning in Spanish

See usted in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Pronoun

IPA: /usˈted/, [usˈt̪eð̞] Forms: ustedes [plural], Vd. [alternative], Ud. [alternative]
Rhymes: -ed Etymology: From vuestra merced (lit. "your mercy" (etymological) or "your grace" (idiomatic)), an honorific style. In 17th-century Spanish, there were a number of variants, including the intermediate forms vuesasted and vusted. Cf. Portuguese você, Galician vostede, Catalan vostè, Asturian vusté and Sardinian bostè and Sardinian fustei. The following list has the variants reported by Coromines and Pascual, with their reported first year of attestation: Early modern variants bosanzé, 1620 (Lope de Vega, Pedro Carbonero, portrayed as said by (ex-)Muslims) boxanxé, ca. 1631 (Quevedo, Libro de todas las cosas y otras muchas más, portrayed as said by (ex-)Muslims) usted, 1620 voarced, 1635 voazé, 1625 (Vélez de Guevara, El Rey en su imagen, portrayed as criminal cant) vuarced, ca. 1630 vuasted, 1617 vucé, 1626 vuesarced, 1621 vuesasted, 1597 vuested, 1635 vusté (in Quiñones de Benavente, died 1651) vusted, 1619 Despite similar phonetics, semantics, and plausible chronology, most likely unrelated to Arabic أستاذ (ustād), which is ultimately from a different Indo-European root (via borrowing from Persian into Arabic). Etymology templates: {{abbr|lit.|literally}} lit., {{cog|pt|você}} Portuguese você, {{cog|gl|vostede}} Galician vostede, {{cog|ca|vostè}} Catalan vostè, {{cog|ast|vusté}} Asturian vusté, {{cog|sc|bostè}} Sardinian bostè, {{cog|sc|fustei}} Sardinian fustei, {{bor|es|ar|أستاذ|tr=ustād}} Arabic أستاذ (ustād) Head templates: {{head|es|pronoun|plural|ustedes|g=mfbysense}} usted m or f by sense (plural ustedes)
  1. (formal) second person formal; you (singular) Tags: by-personal-gender, feminine, formal, masculine Synonyms: , vos, vuestra merced, vusted, vuesarced, vuesasted, vuestra señoría
    Sense id: en-usted-es-pron-zYiDjXaH Categories (other): Pages linking to anchors not found in Appendix:Glossary, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Spanish entries with incorrect language header, Spanish pronouns Disambiguation of Pages linking to anchors not found in Appendix:Glossary: 50 50 0 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 50 50 0 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 51 49 0 Disambiguation of Spanish entries with incorrect language header: 56 44 0 Disambiguation of Spanish pronouns: 47 46 7
  2. (Costa Rica, Colombia, chiefly Bogotá) second person informal; you (singular) Tags: Colombia, Costa-Rica, by-personal-gender, feminine, masculine
    Sense id: en-usted-es-pron-IsEKw5fW Categories (other): Colombian Spanish, Costa Rican Spanish, Pages linking to anchors not found in Appendix:Glossary, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Spanish pronouns Disambiguation of Pages linking to anchors not found in Appendix:Glossary: 50 50 0 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 50 50 0 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 51 49 0 Disambiguation of Spanish pronouns: 47 46 7
  3. (in the plural, Latin America, Canary Islands, Western Andalusia, informal, familiar) you Tags: Andalusia, Canary-Islands, Latin-America, Western, by-personal-gender, familiar, feminine, in-plural, informal, masculine
    Sense id: en-usted-es-pron-uwNHpGjZ Categories (other): Canarian Spanish, Latin American Spanish
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: ustedear
Related terms: yo, , me, conmigo, nosotros, nos, , nosotras, , ti, te, contigo, vos, le, se3, lo, la, vosotros, os, vosotras, ustedes, les, los, las, él, ella, ello5, ellos, ellas, , se, consigo, Like other masculine words, masculine pronouns can be used when the gender of the subject is unknown, when the subject is plural and of mixed gender, Treated as if it were third person for purposes of conjugation and reflexivity, If le, les precedes lo, or las in a clause, it is replaced with se (alt: e.g. se lo dije instead of *le lo dije), Used primarily in Spain, Only used in certain circumstances and rarely as a subject pronoun

Alternative forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "ustedear"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "lit.",
        "2": "literally"
      },
      "expansion": "lit.",
      "name": "abbr"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "pt",
        "2": "você"
      },
      "expansion": "Portuguese você",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gl",
        "2": "vostede"
      },
      "expansion": "Galician vostede",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ca",
        "2": "vostè"
      },
      "expansion": "Catalan vostè",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ast",
        "2": "vusté"
      },
      "expansion": "Asturian vusté",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sc",
        "2": "bostè"
      },
      "expansion": "Sardinian bostè",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sc",
        "2": "fustei"
      },
      "expansion": "Sardinian fustei",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "es",
        "2": "ar",
        "3": "أستاذ",
        "tr": "ustād"
      },
      "expansion": "Arabic أستاذ (ustād)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From vuestra merced (lit. \"your mercy\" (etymological) or \"your grace\" (idiomatic)), an honorific style. In 17th-century Spanish, there were a number of variants, including the intermediate forms vuesasted and vusted. Cf. Portuguese você, Galician vostede, Catalan vostè, Asturian vusté and Sardinian bostè and Sardinian fustei. The following list has the variants reported by Coromines and Pascual, with their reported first year of attestation:\nEarly modern variants\nbosanzé, 1620 (Lope de Vega, Pedro Carbonero, portrayed as said by (ex-)Muslims)\nboxanxé, ca. 1631 (Quevedo, Libro de todas las cosas y otras muchas más, portrayed as said by (ex-)Muslims)\nusted, 1620\nvoarced, 1635\nvoazé, 1625 (Vélez de Guevara, El Rey en su imagen, portrayed as criminal cant)\nvuarced, ca. 1630\nvuasted, 1617\nvucé, 1626\nvuesarced, 1621\nvuesasted, 1597\nvuested, 1635\nvusté (in Quiñones de Benavente, died 1651)\nvusted, 1619\nDespite similar phonetics, semantics, and plausible chronology, most likely unrelated to Arabic أستاذ (ustād), which is ultimately from a different Indo-European root (via borrowing from Persian into Arabic).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ustedes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Vd.",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Ud.",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "es",
        "2": "pronoun",
        "3": "plural",
        "4": "ustedes",
        "g": "mfbysense"
      },
      "expansion": "usted m or f by sense (plural ustedes)",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "us‧ted"
  ],
  "hyphenations": [
    {
      "parts": [
        "us‧ted"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Spanish",
  "lang_code": "es",
  "pos": "pron",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "yo"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "mí"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "me"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "conmigo"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "nosotros"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "nos"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "—"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "nosotras"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "tú"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "ti"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "te"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "contigo"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "vos"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "le"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "se3"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "lo"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "la"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "vosotros"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "os"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "vosotras"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "ustedes"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "les"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "los"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "las"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "él"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "ella"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "ello5"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "ellos"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "ellas"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "sí"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "se"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "consigo"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "Like other masculine words"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "masculine pronouns can be used when the gender of the subject is unknown"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "when the subject is plural and of mixed gender"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "Treated as if it were third person for purposes of conjugation and reflexivity"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "If le"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "les precedes lo"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "or las in a clause"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "alt": "e.g. se lo dije instead of *le lo dije",
      "word": "it is replaced with se"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "Used primarily in Spain"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "Only used in certain circumstances and rarely as a subject pronoun"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "50 50 0",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages linking to anchors not found in Appendix:Glossary",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "50 50 0",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "51 49 0",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "56 44 0",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Spanish entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "47 46 7",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Spanish pronouns",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "second person formal; you (singular)"
      ],
      "id": "en-usted-es-pron-zYiDjXaH",
      "links": [
        [
          "you",
          "you"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(formal) second person formal; you (singular)"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "tú"
        },
        {
          "word": "vos"
        },
        {
          "word": "vuestra merced"
        },
        {
          "word": "vusted"
        },
        {
          "word": "vuesarced"
        },
        {
          "word": "vuesasted"
        },
        {
          "word": "vuestra señoría"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "by-personal-gender",
        "feminine",
        "formal",
        "masculine"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Colombian Spanish",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Costa Rican Spanish",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "50 50 0",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages linking to anchors not found in Appendix:Glossary",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "50 50 0",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "51 49 0",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "47 46 7",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Spanish pronouns",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "second person informal; you (singular)"
      ],
      "id": "en-usted-es-pron-IsEKw5fW",
      "links": [
        [
          "you",
          "you"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Costa Rica, Colombia, chiefly Bogotá) second person informal; you (singular)"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Colombia",
        "Costa-Rica",
        "by-personal-gender",
        "feminine",
        "masculine"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Canarian Spanish",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Latin American Spanish",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "you"
      ],
      "id": "en-usted-es-pron-uwNHpGjZ",
      "links": [
        [
          "you",
          "you"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(in the plural, Latin America, Canary Islands, Western Andalusia, informal, familiar) you"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Andalusia",
        "Canary-Islands",
        "Latin-America",
        "Western",
        "by-personal-gender",
        "familiar",
        "feminine",
        "in-plural",
        "informal",
        "masculine"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/usˈted/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[usˈt̪eð̞]"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ed"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Tuteo",
    "Voseo"
  ],
  "word": "usted"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "Pages linking to anchors not found in Appendix:Glossary",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:Spanish/ed",
    "Rhymes:Spanish/ed/2 syllables",
    "Spanish 2-syllable words",
    "Spanish entries with incorrect language header",
    "Spanish lemmas",
    "Spanish pronouns",
    "Spanish terms borrowed from Arabic",
    "Spanish terms derived from Arabic",
    "Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "Spanish terms with audio pronunciation"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "ustedear"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "lit.",
        "2": "literally"
      },
      "expansion": "lit.",
      "name": "abbr"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "pt",
        "2": "você"
      },
      "expansion": "Portuguese você",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gl",
        "2": "vostede"
      },
      "expansion": "Galician vostede",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ca",
        "2": "vostè"
      },
      "expansion": "Catalan vostè",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ast",
        "2": "vusté"
      },
      "expansion": "Asturian vusté",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sc",
        "2": "bostè"
      },
      "expansion": "Sardinian bostè",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "sc",
        "2": "fustei"
      },
      "expansion": "Sardinian fustei",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "es",
        "2": "ar",
        "3": "أستاذ",
        "tr": "ustād"
      },
      "expansion": "Arabic أستاذ (ustād)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From vuestra merced (lit. \"your mercy\" (etymological) or \"your grace\" (idiomatic)), an honorific style. In 17th-century Spanish, there were a number of variants, including the intermediate forms vuesasted and vusted. Cf. Portuguese você, Galician vostede, Catalan vostè, Asturian vusté and Sardinian bostè and Sardinian fustei. The following list has the variants reported by Coromines and Pascual, with their reported first year of attestation:\nEarly modern variants\nbosanzé, 1620 (Lope de Vega, Pedro Carbonero, portrayed as said by (ex-)Muslims)\nboxanxé, ca. 1631 (Quevedo, Libro de todas las cosas y otras muchas más, portrayed as said by (ex-)Muslims)\nusted, 1620\nvoarced, 1635\nvoazé, 1625 (Vélez de Guevara, El Rey en su imagen, portrayed as criminal cant)\nvuarced, ca. 1630\nvuasted, 1617\nvucé, 1626\nvuesarced, 1621\nvuesasted, 1597\nvuested, 1635\nvusté (in Quiñones de Benavente, died 1651)\nvusted, 1619\nDespite similar phonetics, semantics, and plausible chronology, most likely unrelated to Arabic أستاذ (ustād), which is ultimately from a different Indo-European root (via borrowing from Persian into Arabic).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ustedes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Vd.",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Ud.",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "es",
        "2": "pronoun",
        "3": "plural",
        "4": "ustedes",
        "g": "mfbysense"
      },
      "expansion": "usted m or f by sense (plural ustedes)",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "us‧ted"
  ],
  "hyphenations": [
    {
      "parts": [
        "us‧ted"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Spanish",
  "lang_code": "es",
  "pos": "pron",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "yo"
    },
    {
      "word": "mí"
    },
    {
      "word": "me"
    },
    {
      "word": "conmigo"
    },
    {
      "word": "nosotros"
    },
    {
      "word": "nos"
    },
    {
      "word": "—"
    },
    {
      "word": "nosotras"
    },
    {
      "word": "tú"
    },
    {
      "word": "ti"
    },
    {
      "word": "te"
    },
    {
      "word": "contigo"
    },
    {
      "word": "vos"
    },
    {
      "word": "le"
    },
    {
      "word": "se3"
    },
    {
      "word": "lo"
    },
    {
      "word": "la"
    },
    {
      "word": "vosotros"
    },
    {
      "word": "os"
    },
    {
      "word": "vosotras"
    },
    {
      "word": "ustedes"
    },
    {
      "word": "les"
    },
    {
      "word": "los"
    },
    {
      "word": "las"
    },
    {
      "word": "él"
    },
    {
      "word": "ella"
    },
    {
      "word": "ello5"
    },
    {
      "word": "ellos"
    },
    {
      "word": "ellas"
    },
    {
      "word": "sí"
    },
    {
      "word": "se"
    },
    {
      "word": "consigo"
    },
    {
      "word": "Like other masculine words"
    },
    {
      "word": "masculine pronouns can be used when the gender of the subject is unknown"
    },
    {
      "word": "when the subject is plural and of mixed gender"
    },
    {
      "word": "Treated as if it were third person for purposes of conjugation and reflexivity"
    },
    {
      "word": "If le"
    },
    {
      "word": "les precedes lo"
    },
    {
      "word": "or las in a clause"
    },
    {
      "alt": "e.g. se lo dije instead of *le lo dije",
      "word": "it is replaced with se"
    },
    {
      "word": "Used primarily in Spain"
    },
    {
      "word": "Only used in certain circumstances and rarely as a subject pronoun"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Spanish formal terms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "second person formal; you (singular)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "you",
          "you"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(formal) second person formal; you (singular)"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "tú"
        },
        {
          "word": "vos"
        },
        {
          "word": "vuestra merced"
        },
        {
          "word": "vusted"
        },
        {
          "word": "vuesarced"
        },
        {
          "word": "vuesasted"
        },
        {
          "word": "vuestra señoría"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "by-personal-gender",
        "feminine",
        "formal",
        "masculine"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Colombian Spanish",
        "Costa Rican Spanish"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "second person informal; you (singular)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "you",
          "you"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Costa Rica, Colombia, chiefly Bogotá) second person informal; you (singular)"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Colombia",
        "Costa-Rica",
        "by-personal-gender",
        "feminine",
        "masculine"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Canarian Spanish",
        "Latin American Spanish",
        "Spanish familiar terms",
        "Spanish informal terms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "you"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "you",
          "you"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(in the plural, Latin America, Canary Islands, Western Andalusia, informal, familiar) you"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Andalusia",
        "Canary-Islands",
        "Latin-America",
        "Western",
        "by-personal-gender",
        "familiar",
        "feminine",
        "in-plural",
        "informal",
        "masculine"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/usˈted/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[usˈt̪eð̞]"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ed"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Tuteo",
    "Voseo"
  ],
  "word": "usted"
}

Download raw JSONL data for usted meaning in Spanish (5.2kB)

{
  "called_from": "form_descriptions/1831",
  "msg": "unrecognized sense qualifier: Costa Rica, Colombia, chiefly Bogotá",
  "path": [
    "usted"
  ],
  "section": "Spanish",
  "subsection": "pronoun",
  "title": "usted",
  "trace": ""
}

{
  "called_from": "form_descriptions/1831",
  "msg": "unrecognized sense qualifier: Costa Rica, Colombia, chiefly Bogotá",
  "path": [
    "usted"
  ],
  "section": "Spanish",
  "subsection": "pronoun",
  "title": "usted",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Spanish dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-19 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (d1270d2 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.