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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The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.—
Charna Flam,
PEOPLE,
10 Jan. 2026
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Google plans to expand to other languages and countries in the coming months.—
Jacqueline Munis,
Fortune,
8 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The discovery of language skills in great apes — various gorillas and chimps learned substantial vocabularies in sign language or symbols — and that of tool use across the animal kingdom have, over the years, chipped away at the idea that there is any single ingredient that makes humans unique.—
Tom Chivers,
semafor.com,
13 Jan. 2026
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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
Noun
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These are just a few of the beauty effects that were on the tips of everyone's tongues in 2025.—
Jackie Fields,
PEOPLE,
29 Dec. 2025
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Madsen had to make sure the multilingual dialogue sounded pitch-perfect in many tongues, some of which are quite endangered.—
Sarah Shachat,
IndieWire,
19 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Like fellow North Carolinians Wednesday and MJ Lenderman—local stars descended from the likes of Lucinda Williams and Drive-By Truckers—Dowdy carves complex new visions into the idioms of his upbringing.—
Jenn Pelly,
Time,
4 Dec. 2025
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For decades, the Grisons had printed textbooks in five Romansh idioms—a baroque solution that invited a more rational one.—
Simon Akam,
New Yorker,
1 Dec. 2025
Noun
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From that point, she was infatuated with Appalachian and southern dialects.—
Annie Joy Williams,
The Atlantic,
4 Jan. 2026
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The school district, where at least 20 languages and dialects are spoken, has higher high school graduation and college attendance rates than the state and national average, and one of Nebraska’s biggest marching bands.—
Jesse Bedayn,
Fortune,
22 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Mother tongues.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mother%20tongues. Accessed 18 Jan. 2026.
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