as in languages
the stock of words, pronunciation, and grammar used by a people as their basic means of communication
although the anthropologist could speak the local language fairly well, she was always glad to find someone who shared her mother tongue
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Recent Examples of mother tongues
Work with people of different ages, backgrounds, perspectives, and mother tongues.
—
Rachel Konrad, Time, 9 Dec. 2025
Each actress nails the comedic timing – and the accented English that flows with the cadence of their mother tongues.
—Elizabeth B. Kim, Cincinnati Enquirer, 7 Nov. 2025
Rachel Konrad, Time, 9 Dec. 2025
Each actress nails the comedic timing – and the accented English that flows with the cadence of their mother tongues.
—Elizabeth B. Kim, Cincinnati Enquirer, 7 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mother tongues
Noun
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The Final Jeopardy question, which fell under the world languages category, asked for the alphabetically first and last of South Africa's 12 official languages.—
Melina Khan,
USA Today,
28 Apr. 2026
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When there is no war on, the shelter functions as a community center, complete with a Filipino church, a refugee health clinic, and retailers catering to customers in more than a dozen languages.—
Theia Chatelle,
Sun Sentinel,
27 Apr. 2026
Noun
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By the end of the learning unit, Burton said growth in the children could be seen as their vocabularies expanded to using words such as thermometer, blood pressure and punctured.—
Tribune News Service,
Baltimore Sun,
30 Apr. 2026
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Shallow, misogynistic speech has seeped into the daily vocabularies of many, suggesting the toxic, anti-woman values that have long inspired such rhetoric are once again calcifying into a widespread and serious problem.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
28 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Houseflies find sugar with their feet, which are 10 million times more sensitive than human tongues.—
Julie Sharp,
CBS News,
23 Apr. 2026
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Composer Paul has concocted a pastiche of songs forever on the edge of our memories if not our tongues.—
Greg Evans,
Deadline,
20 Apr. 2026
Noun
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If the assignment is to translate something from a foreign language, there are plenty of tools and resources that can do it for you, including by recognizing and figuratively translating idioms.—
Ethan Siegel,
Big Think,
25 Mar. 2026
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Those books introduced me to a vision of American teenage life and taught me the rhythms and idioms of American English, nuances that would later replace my Britishisms and shape my career as a journalist.—
Faith Karimi,
CNN Money,
17 Feb. 2026
Noun
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The small cadre of community radio stations in coastal Bangladesh, using local dialects, provide an early-warning system against tsunamis, flooding, and cyclones.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
23 Apr. 2026
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The British colonial name of New Cut was different from other nearby creeks—Wadmalaw, Bohicket, Leadenwah, Stono—all named in Indigenous dialects.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Mother tongues.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mother%20tongues. Accessed 3 May. 2026.
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