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 underclassman enjoys learning languages, baking and coaching swimming.—
Tyler McManus,
Boston Herald,
7 Apr. 2026
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The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.—
Angela Andaloro,
PEOPLE,
7 Apr. 2026
Noun
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In the October 2025 study that followed families over time, children who spent more time with digital media at age 2 tended to have smaller vocabularies at age 3, regardless of the child’s temperament or the caregiver’s personality traits.—
Miriam Fauzia,
Dallas Morning News,
2 Mar. 2026
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Teams were asked to learn new interfaces, adopt new vocabularies, and take responsibility for outputs whose behavior remained probabilistic rather than deterministic.—
Alexander Puutio,
Forbes.com,
28 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Olympian figure skater Alysa Liu has been on the tip of everyone’s tongues, following her two gold medal wins at the 2026 Winter Olympics.—
Katie Decker-Jacoby,
StyleCaster,
30 Mar. 2026
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The sediment close to their roots can be as sweet as fruit nectars or tree sap, although to human tongues the mud tastes overwhelmingly of salt and decay.—
David George Haskell,
Big Think,
27 Mar. 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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Human communication with honeyguides in northern Mozambique occurs in local dialects.—
Rafil Kroll-Zaidi,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Mar. 2026
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Not between English and other languages but between the dialects spoken by different corners of the industry.—
Amber Nigam,
Harvard Business Review,
11 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Mother tongues.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mother%20tongues. Accessed 11 Apr. 2026.
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