Thesaurus results for MOTHER TONGUES

mother tongues

noun

plural of mother tongue

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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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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for mother tongues

Noun

The teachers need to be certified in elementary education, fluent in Spanish and certified to teach students who speak other languages, Jackson said.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 16 Sep. 2026
Tourists speaking several languages, some wearing foam Statue of Liberty crowns, filled the seats; Quan made his way to an upper-deck railing.

— Sarah Larson, New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2026

Definition of languages

Noun

Yet a 2023 Stanford study said that Pangram was biased against non-native English speakers, who might have more limited vocabularies, and many AI researchers contend that such detectors are unreliable.

— Cameron Pugh, Christian Science Monitor, 12 Aug. 2026
Chinese law schools have accordingly placed greater weight on teaching Chinese students to argue using the vocabularies of foreign legal systems.

— Mark Jia, Foreign Affairs, 7 Aug. 2026

Definition of vocabularies

Noun

Cinema is, after all, a language, and Belgian filmmakers come from a country built on the need to understand language as a bridge—between its regions, its people, and its idioms.

— Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 11 Sep. 2026
There are plenty of idioms to describe Andrean outside hitter Aleece Ehler’s freshman season.

— Noah Poser, Chicago Tribune, 18 Aug. 2026

Definition of idioms

Noun

On the edges of the empire, speakers of Germanic dialects, such as the Goths and Vandals, frequently clashed with the Romans, eventually contributing to the fragmentation of the empire.

— Scott Spires, Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Sep. 2026
What used to be two entirely separate compliance projects is starting to look like two dialects of the same emerging language.

— Abdelahhad Barbour, Forbes.com, 1 Sep. 2026

Definition of dialects

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mother tongue

mother tongues

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“Mother tongues.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mother%20tongues. Accessed 21 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of mother tongues

noun

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