Caucasian

adjective

Cau·​ca·​sian kȯ-ˈkā-zhən 

kä-,

 also  -ˈka-zhən

1

: of or relating to the Caucasus or its inhabitants

were forced to leave their Caucasian homeland

2

: of or relating to a group of people having European ancestry, classified according to physical traits (such as light skin pigmentation), and formerly considered to constitute a race (see race entry 1 sense 1a) of humans

Note: People of North African and southwest Asian ancestry were historically also sometimes considered to be of the Caucasian race.

Caucasian noun

Caucasoid

ˈkȯ-kə-ˌsȯid 

-ˌzȯid

adjective or noun

Did you know?

Caucasian vs. White

Caucasian has two fairly distinct meanings, and the difference between them occasionally leads people to aver that one of them is incorrect. The earliest sense of the word is a literal one: “of or relating to the Caucasus (a region in southeastern Europe between the Black and Caspian seas) or its inhabitants.” The second refers to the racial group commonly referred to as white.

The objection to using Caucasian to refer to a white person is that many whites do not actually come from the Caucasus region. Be this as it may, there is no rule in language stipulating that the formation of a word must be based on logic; were this the case we would not call members of this racial group either Caucasian or white, since there are very few whose skin color is in fact that exact shade.

Examples of Caucasian in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Just like those splashy HBO hits, The Perfect Couple centers around a dead body that shatters the lives of very wealthy Caucasian people. —Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 13 Sep. 2024

Uptown street legend White Boy Kev cemented his moniker as the sole Caucasian haze dealer in the La Marina Boyz crew, holding down multiple street corners in Washington Heights in the early Nineties. —Jay Bulger, Rolling Stone, 13 Aug. 2024

Specifically, the genetic profile found in the rape kit was common, according to the DQ-alpha results, in 15 percent of Black population, 10.5 percent of Caucasian population and 4 percent of Hispanic population. —Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 18 July 2024

The rupture in Armenia’s relations with Russia comes after Azerbaijan retook Nagorno-Karabakh in a one-day war in September, sparking an exodus of virtually all of the Caucasian enclave’s ethnic Armenian population, despite the presence there of Russian peacekeepers. —Christian Edwards, CNN, 13 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1542, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

Caucasian

adjective

Cau·​ca·​sian kȯ-ˈkā-zhən 

-ˈkazh-ən

1

: of or relating to the Caucasus or people living there

2

: of or relating to a group of people having European ancestry, classified according to physical traits (as light skin pigmentation), and formerly considered to constitute a race of humans

Caucasian noun

Medical Definition

Caucasian

adjective

Cau·​ca·​sian ˈkȯ-ˈkā-zhən, -ˈkazh-ən 

: of or relating to a group of people having European ancestry, classified according to physical traits (as light skin pigmentation), and formerly considered to constitute a race of humans

Caucasian noun