Serbo-Croatian
noun
Ser·bo-Cro·a·tian
ˌsər-(ˌ)bō-krō-ˈā-shən 
1
: the Serbian and Croatian languages together with the Slavic speech of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro taken as a single language with regional variants
2
: a person whose native language is Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian
adjective
Examples of Serbo-Croatian in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
But the book had been published in only two languages, Hungarian in 1950 and Serbo-Croatian in 1951, preventing widespread dissemination.
—
Lois K. Solomon, Sun Sentinel, 3 Feb. 2025
One of the world’s most vicious civil wars today, that in the land that once was Yugoslavia, pits peoples unified by language but divided by religion and ethnicity: Orthodox Serbs against Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosnians, all speaking Serbo-Croatian.
—Jared Diamond, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019
In the mission in Cyprus, for example, few peacekeepers speak Greek or Turkish; the same is true for Arabic or Nuer in South Sudan, Albanian or Serbo-Croatian in Kosovo, and French or Haitian Creole in Haiti.
—Séverine Autesserre, Foreign Affairs, 11 Dec. 2018
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Lois K. Solomon, Sun Sentinel, 3 Feb. 2025
One of the world’s most vicious civil wars today, that in the land that once was Yugoslavia, pits peoples unified by language but divided by religion and ethnicity: Orthodox Serbs against Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosnians, all speaking Serbo-Croatian.
—Jared Diamond, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019
In the mission in Cyprus, for example, few peacekeepers speak Greek or Turkish; the same is true for Arabic or Nuer in South Sudan, Albanian or Serbo-Croatian in Kosovo, and French or Haitian Creole in Haiti.
—Séverine Autesserre, Foreign Affairs, 11 Dec. 2018
Cite this Entry
“Serbo-Croatian.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Serbo-Croatian. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share