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
Relevance
Example Sentences
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.
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
-
In recent years China’s Communist Party has ramped up oversight of religious institutions, rolled back the use of ethnic minority languages in primary, secondary schools and kindergartens.
-
Among other things, the council revolutionized the Catholic Church’s relations with other religions and the laity, and allowed Mass to be celebrated in vernacular languages rather than Latin.
Noun
-
Do the formal vocabularies that are supposed to encode my field actually capture how the people in it think?
-
But more variations of Austronesian languages have been identified in Taiwan, accompanied with more intricate grammatical structures and expansive vocabularies, which has provided insights for linguists.
Noun
-
The results have often left me highly frustrated, but also have given me indescribable joy at the fact of having absorbed (although only partially, of course) some of the elusive beauty of those marvelous, magical, mysteriously alluring tongues.
-
The scene when Emily Blunt speaks in alien tongues was deeply spooky.
Noun
-
Language is often a reflection of the culture that shapes it, impacting tone, idioms, dialects and even silence across regions.
-
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.
Noun
-
It is also being distributed internationally and has been translated into French, Spanish, German and three Greenlandic dialects.
-
Language is often a reflection of the culture that shapes it, impacting tone, idioms, dialects and even silence across regions.
Cite this Entry
“Mother tongues.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mother%20tongues. Accessed 2 Jul. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
