as in language
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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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of mother tongue
Since 1994, Ethiopia’s policy has been that students should receive instruction in their mother tongue (or the dominant mother tongue of their area) in grades one through eight and shift to English instruction in ninth grade.
—
Laura Clawson, JSTOR Daily, 20 June 2025
The presenters spoke their mother tongue (Farsi and Hindi), which was detected and translated in real-time to English.
—Ryan Whitwam, ArsTechnica, 22 May 2025
But he’s got Maye in one ear and Coughlin in the other, speaking the mother tongue of speed-the-plow.
—Paul Solotaroff, Rolling Stone, 11 May 2025
Growing up in upstate New York, Lin rejected her Chinese heritage and resisted learning her mother tongue.
—Aditi Sriram, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mother tongue
Laura Clawson, JSTOR Daily, 20 June 2025
The presenters spoke their mother tongue (Farsi and Hindi), which was detected and translated in real-time to English.
—Ryan Whitwam, ArsTechnica, 22 May 2025
But he’s got Maye in one ear and Coughlin in the other, speaking the mother tongue of speed-the-plow.
—Paul Solotaroff, Rolling Stone, 11 May 2025
Growing up in upstate New York, Lin rejected her Chinese heritage and resisted learning her mother tongue.
—Aditi Sriram, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mother tongue
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mother tongue
Noun
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The language was tacked on in a last-minute amendment just before the legislature adjourned for the 2024 session.—
Mia Cathell,
The Washington Examiner,
4 Sep. 2025
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Various exemptions for the requirement include having certain disabilities, having less than three years of formal English language learner instruction or receiving intensive support.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
3 Sep. 2025
Noun
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For decades, BCIs were limited to toy demos and small vocabularies.—
Jason Snyder,
Forbes.com,
31 Aug. 2025
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There was a clear vocabulary to define consent within OneTaste, but one witness after another spoke of pressure and powerlessness.—
Thessaly La Force,
New Yorker,
29 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Of course, with all the tail- and tongue-wagging joy our little friends get from tagging along comes some risk.—
Olivia Young,
Travel + Leisure,
2 Sep. 2025
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All the characters speak English, in either British or vaguely European accents, lifting Assayas from the burden of getting his actors to speak in a Russian tongue and helping to widen the casting net for one of his starriest ensembles.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
31 Aug. 2025
Noun
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It is written in an almost stream-of-consciousness style, rather like someone reluctantly dredging up their memories, with random thoughts interrupting the narrative, long sentences sometimes running to over a page, little punctuation, and peppered with Kobe dialect.—
Ginny Tapley Takemori
September 4,
Literary Hub,
4 Sep. 2025
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The Cajun dialect is a very particular one.—
Zack Sharf,
Variety,
2 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Because the construction is a natural and graceful part of our English idiom.—
Richard Lederer,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
30 Aug. 2025
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Human reviewers still refine idiom and theology, but the transformation in speed will be similar to the jump from quill to printing press.—
Kaif Shaikh,
Interesting Engineering,
15 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Mother tongue.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mother%20tongue. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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