narco

1 of 2

noun

nar·​co ˈnär-(ˌ)kō 

plural narcos

1

US slang : one who traffics or deals drugs illegally

One of the ways for big narcos to launder drug money was to acquire land.

—Maureen Orth

… the US government has for the past fifteen years been waging all-out war on the Colombian narcos, with little to show for it.

—Michael Massing

also : narcotic drugs

—usually used before another noun

narco traffic/traffickers

narco smuggling

see also narco- sense 2

2

US slang : a person investigating narcotics violations : narc

Students also have agitated against university acquiescence in the presence on the campus of "narcos"—police agents seeking to make arrests for violations of narcotics laws …

—Earl C. Gottschalk, Jr.

narco-

2 of 2

combining form

1

: deep sleep

narcolepsy

2

[narcotic] : associated with, relating to, or engaged in the sale of illegal narcotics

narco-terrorism

narco-corruption

narco-criminals

narco-dollars [=dollars gained through the sale of illegal narcotics]

Examples of narco in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Melissa Ford Maldonado, director of the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the America First Policy Institute, said the fractures reflect a broader regional reckoning with the consequences of socialist and narco-authoritarian rule. —Efrat Lachter, FOXNews.com, 6 Jan. 2026

Trump himself kept talking not about anti-Communism or narco-trafficking but about oil. —Benjamin Wallace-Wells, New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2026

In a superseding indictment unsealed Saturday, federal prosecutors have accused Maduro, his wife, son and others of partnering with some of the most violent, prolific drug traffickers and narco terrorists in the world to distribute tons of cocaine to the United States for decades. —Matt Gutman, CBS News, 5 Jan. 2026

Trump pardoned a former Honduran president, a narco-terrorist who poured 400 million pounds of cocaine into this country. —Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 5 Jan. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Noun

(sense 1) borrowed from American Spanish, probably short for narcotraficante "drug trafficker," from narco- narco- + traficante "dealer, trafficker"; (sense 2) from narc- (as in narcotics agent, narcotics officer) + -o entry 1

Combining form

combining form from Greek nárkē "numbness, lack of sensation"; (sense 2) in part after American Spanish narco- (as in narcodependencia "drug dependency," narcotráfico "drug trafficking") — more at narcosis

First Known Use

Noun

1954, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing narco

• narco-terrorism

Rhymes for narco

• arco