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
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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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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Football in Ghana is a powerful unifying force in a country of more than 30 million people, multiple languages, and dozens of distinct ethnic groups.—
Carl Anka,
New York Times,
10 June 2026
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Israel’s military has spokespeople in several languages, but only Adraee is famous enough to be known by his first name.—
Melanie Lidman,
Los Angeles Times,
9 June 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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Almost all of them speak in tongues additional to their native ones.—
James Horncastle,
New York Times,
10 June 2026
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Now most of them bite their tongues instead of raising their voices.—
Jonathan Zimmerman,
Chicago Tribune,
9 June 2026
Noun
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Language is often a reflection of the culture that shapes it, impacting tone, idioms, dialects and even silence across regions.—
Ryan Kolln,
Forbes.com,
26 May 2026
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Probably because at the time many of the time signatures and chordal progressions that Miles used were over the head of a young guitar player still functioning in the blues and folk idioms.—
Steve Baltin,
Los Angeles Times,
25 May 2026
Noun
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It is also being distributed internationally and has been translated into French, Spanish, German and three Greenlandic dialects.—
Tarini Mehta,
Sacbee.com,
9 June 2026
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Language is often a reflection of the culture that shapes it, impacting tone, idioms, dialects and even silence across regions.—
Ryan Kolln,
Forbes.com,
26 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Mother tongues.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mother%20tongues. Accessed 12 Jun. 2026.
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