Portuguese (português) is an Iberian Romance language originated in Portugal and Galicia, which is now the main language also of Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, Cape Verde and several other African and Asian nations, and an important second language in many other countries.

Portuguese is the sixth major language of the world in number of native speakers (over 200 million), and the first one in South America (186 million, over 51% of the population). It spread worldwide in the 15th and 16th century as Portugal set up a vast colonial and commercial empire (1415–1999), spanning from Brazil in the Americas to Macao in China. In that colonial period, many Portuguese-based creole languages appeared all over the world, especially in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

The Portuguese language is often nicknamed The language of Camões, after the author of the Portuguese national epic The Lusiads; The last flower of Latium (Olavo Bilac); and The sweet language (Cervantes).

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