The cut-throat finch was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[3] Gmelin based his account on the "fasciated grossbeak" that had been described and illustrated in 1776 by the English naturalist Peter Brown.

[4] Neither Brown nor Gmelin specified a locality but in 1805 the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot designated Senegal.

[7] Four subspecies are recognised:[7] The cut-throat finch has plumage that is pale, sandy brown with flecks of black all over.

It has a black-brown tail, a thick white chin and cheeks, and a chestnut brown patch on the belly.