What does “pasto” mean in Spanish?

Pasto means “grass” in most of Latin America. In this clip the speaker points at it and says el pasto está mojado (“the grass is wet”). In Spain, people usually call a lawn césped instead, and you say cortar el césped for “mow the lawn.” So pasto is a quick signal that the speaker is from Latin America rather than Spain.

In Spain pasto tends to mean wild grass that animals eat, while a garden or park lawn is césped. Across Latin America pasto covers both, so you will hear cortar el pasto for “mow the lawn.” Other words for grass exist too, like hierba and grama, depending on the country.