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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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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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.—
Wayne Chang,
CNN Money,
17 June 2026
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If things seemed a little pricey at the concession stands, there were some bonding moments that fans of all languages could appreciate — especially those familiar with American football.—
Blair Kerkhoff,
Kansas City Star,
17 June 2026
Noun
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Children who are read to from under a year old often have larger and more complex vocabularies than their peers by the age of three.—
Rachael O'Connor,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 Nov. 2025
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The 306-page book use solos by Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis and other jazz immortals to provide melodic and rhythmic vocabularies for improvisation.—
George Varga,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
26 Nov. 2025
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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Mercedes designs its latest luxury models in China to incorporate Chinese tastes and cultural idioms, debuting them exclusively at Chinese auto shows.—
semafor.com,
semafor.com,
9 June 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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Sperm whales communicate using group-specific dialects orders of magnitude older than Sanskrit.—
Ryan Huling,
Time,
7 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Mother tongues.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mother%20tongues. Accessed 17 Jun. 2026.
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