Phrase guide

café au lait

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˌkæfeɪ əʊ ˈleɪ/
  • /kæˌfeɪ əʊ ˈleɪ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -eɪ

1

noun

Meaning 1

A mixture of coffee and hot milk.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Coffee and hot milk served in separate jugs as a breakfast drink.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A light coffee colour.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Borrowed from French café au lait (literally “coffee with milk”).

Across languages

Translations

21 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: cafè amb llet — coffee with milk
  • Dutch: koffie verkeerd — coffee with milk
  • Esperanto: laktokafo — coffee with milk
  • Finnish: ranskalainen maitokahvi — coffee with milk
  • Finnish: café au lait — coffee with milk
  • French: café au lait — coffee with milk
  • German: Milchkaffee — coffee with milk
  • Hebrew: קָפֶה הָפוּךְ (qafé hafúch) — coffee with milk
  • Italian: caffè latte — coffee with milk
  • Italian: caffè e latte — coffee with milk
  • Japanese: カフェオレ (kafeore) — coffee with milk
  • Korean: 카페오레 (kape'ore) — coffee with milk
  • Malay: kopi susu — coffee with milk
  • Polish: café au lait — coffee with milk
  • Polish: biała kawa — coffee with milk
  • Portuguese: café com leite — coffee with milk
  • Spanish: café con leche — coffee with milk
  • Thai: กาเฟโอแล — coffee with milk
  • Turkish: sütlü kahve — coffee with milk
  • Finnish: maitokahvi — colour
  • French: café au lait — colour