Last updated on April 21, 2026 by Shannon
Central America, you win. I lay prostrate at your feet and surrender—to your charm, your eccentricities, and especially to the phrase that seems to run the show: más o menos.
Más o menos means “more or less” in Spanish—but depending on the context, it can signal anything from “approximately” to “don’t take this too literally.” In practice, it carries a lot more weight—and understanding how it’s used can save you a surprising amount of frustration.
What Does Más o Menos Mean in a Cultural Sense?
You’ll hear más o menos anywhere Spanish is spoken. I hear it regularly living in Barcelona. But in Latin America, it feels like something more than just a phrase—it’s a mindset.
My first days in Cuba were frustrating.
It felt like más o menos meant: “I can tell you whatever I want—even if it’s wrong—as long as I tack this on at the end.”
Of course, that’s not what it means. But it felt that way at the time.
In reality, it’s just a flexible expression. It can mean:
- “around that”
- “kind of”
- “it depends”
- or sometimes, “good enough”
From Bogotá to Barcelona, people use it to soften answers, estimate loosely, or avoid committing too precisely.
And that’s where the cultural shift comes in.
Más o Menos Situations (and What They Actually Mean)
Cuba was one of my first stops in Latin America, and learning how to interpret más o menos was a hard-earned lesson.
I fought it at first.
I like things to run on time. If you tell me “20 minutes,” I’ll be there exactly 20 minutes later, waiting. So when a two-hour cab ride turns into five and a half, it’s hard not to feel justified in being frustrated.
But if that estimate came with a quiet más o menos attached?
That’s on me.
Trust me, traveling in Mexico, for example, is not the time to think in absolutes. Mexican notions of distance can be as stretchable as a piece of warm taffy. The route might be more circuitous than you’d expect, so add a buffer to your travel time if you ever hear a más o menos tacked onto an estimation.
Travelers like me will find this fun idiom woven into conversations in other ways that can be insightful, comical, and sometimes even culturally enlightening.
Picture yourself in a bustling Mexican mercado, surrounded by an intoxicating mix of fragrances from sizzling street food stalls. You ask the vendor, “Is this salsa spicy?” and he replies with a playful más o menos.
Beware! Cultural awareness is your friend here. In this context, particular when you factor in the tone of delivery, más o menos means “prepare for some heat.” Mexicans have a high tolerance for heat. Their “medium” can easily be “tears streaming down your face.”
It shows up in more subtle ways, too.
In Havana, I once asked if a nearby art gallery was worth visiting. The response: a quick smile and a casual, “más o menos,” tossed over a shoulder.
That told me everything I needed to know.
In that moment, más o menos wasn’t neutral—it was a soft dismissal. Not terrible, not worth seeking out either.
What I Learned from It
India taught me something similar early in my travels: if you try to control everything, you’ll miss the experience entirely.
You have to loosen your grip a bit.
And that’s what más o menos taught me in Latin America—and later, while living in Spain.
Not everything needs to be precise. Not every answer needs to be exact.
Sometimes it’s about the gist, the intention, the feeling behind what’s being said.
Once I stopped fighting that, I started enjoying it.
Now I find myself using más o menos too—especially when telling stories. It gives you a little freedom to exaggerate, soften, or round the edges.
Más o menos is a masterclass in cultural nuances, teaching you to read between the lines while also compelling you to engage more deeply with the land and its people.
And if you end it with a smile and a más o menos?
Well… it’s still the truth. More or less. ;-)
I’m a (just turned) 50 year old woman who lives aboard a boat in the US, and I used this phrase this morning in a text to a friend. I suddenly realized I use it a lot in my mind but not in the world because I’m mostly around other native English speakers. I only learned it in my high school Spanish class waaaayyyyyy back in the early early 90s and never had cause to use it because I didn’t travel as far as you have when I was young, and never anywhere I’d speak Spanish. But the phrase must have resonated with me because it’s always worked exactly how you describe it in my mind. It’s like, there’s not quite an English phrase that FEELS the same. More or less has a different vibe altogether. Anyway, today, at this late date in my life, I looked up the phrase to see if it was commonly used in Hispanic countries, and I found your post and enjoyed it very much. I used to be a solo mom with a young son, too!