A latte ( or )Latte – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster DictionaryDefinition of latte in Oxford Dictionaries (British & World English) is a coffee drink made with espresso and steamed milk. The term as used in English is a shortened form of the Italian caffè latte or caffellatte (), which means “milk coffee”. The word is also sometimes spelled latté or lattè in English with different kinds of accent marks, which can be a hyperforeignism or a deliberate attempt to indicate the word is not pronounced according to the rules of English phonics. In northern Europe and Scandinavia the term ‘café au lait’ has traditionally been used for the combination of espresso and milk, but this term is used in the US for brewed coffee and scalded milk. In France, ‘caffè latte’ is mostly known from American coffee chains; a combination of espresso and steamed milk equivalent to a ‘latte’ is in French called ‘grand crème’ and in German ‘Milchkaffee’ or ‘Melange’. Variants include replacing the coffee with another drink base such as masala chai (spiced Indian tea), mate or matcha, and other types of milk, such as soy milk or almond milk are also used.