as in language
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 tongue
The show opened with songs in Mukherjee’s mother tongue Bengali, that were composed, written and sung by famous Bengali musicians including Nobel Prize awardee Rabindranath Tagore.
—
Riddhi Doshi, CNN, 28 Jan. 2025
The film’s Park City premiere would mark the beginning of what would be an incredible 12-month trajectory for the £4M ($5M) film about three hedonistic Irish speakers who form hip-hop group Kneecap and become the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save their mother tongue.
—Diana Lodderhose, Deadline, 23 Jan. 2025
Miranda is a rare instance of Björk writing her lyrics entirely in Icelandic, and her melodies sound lovely and in some ways more natural in her mother tongue.
—Al Shipley, SPIN, 22 Jan. 2025
But most also want their children to first gain a strong grounding in their mother tongue.
—Chris Buckley, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mother tongue
Riddhi Doshi, CNN, 28 Jan. 2025
The film’s Park City premiere would mark the beginning of what would be an incredible 12-month trajectory for the £4M ($5M) film about three hedonistic Irish speakers who form hip-hop group Kneecap and become the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save their mother tongue.
—Diana Lodderhose, Deadline, 23 Jan. 2025
Miranda is a rare instance of Björk writing her lyrics entirely in Icelandic, and her melodies sound lovely and in some ways more natural in her mother tongue.
—Al Shipley, SPIN, 22 Jan. 2025
But most also want their children to first gain a strong grounding in their mother tongue.
—Chris Buckley, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mother tongue
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mother tongue
Noun
-
According to the federal government, California is home to the largest number of international students, and the most popular majors among international students are computer science, language, and business administration and management.—
Jennifer Borresen,
USA Today,
4 May 2025
-
In addition to sculpture and installation, Nkanga is also a poet; a role that deepens her intuitive, layered relationship to language and form.—
Okla Jones,
Essence,
3 May 2025
Noun
-
How to clean jewelry, then, should be an easily answerable and well-attended to question within your fashion vocabulary.—
Anna Cafolla,
Vogue,
25 Apr. 2025
-
According to lead researcher Federico Rossano, this marks just the beginning of exploring canine vocabulary, with future studies aiming to delve into more abstract concepts to better understand dog cognition and communication.—
Ross Rosenfeld,
MSNBC Newsweek,
23 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
This pair weighs just over one pound and includes heel and tongue loops to make slipping them on and off a breeze.—
Merrell Readman,
Travel + Leisure,
24 Apr. 2025
-
So the monkey was sticking his tongue in the trainer’s mouth and then coming over and doing it to me.—
Mikey O'Connell,
HollywoodReporter,
20 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Coogler wanted to ensure that neither of those characters would turn into caricatures, and had Jordan work with a dialect coach to aid in that and even asked twin filmmakers Logan and Noah Miller to consult on the film, helping him on the screenplay too.—
Randy Myers,
Mercury News,
16 Apr. 2025
-
Currently, African languages and dialects are underrepresented due to a lack of data and there are often biases in training data, such as facial recognition systems that struggle with darker skin tones.—
Nell Lewis,
CNN Money,
3 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Even names, idioms, and cultural references are sometimes exoticized or reduced to caricatures, reinforcing narrow or misleading representations.—
Diana Spehar,
Forbes.com,
1 May 2025
-
At that time, writers like Ashbery and Frank O’Hara were helping to establish a new idiom in American poetry, something serious without self-seriousness: the new poetry was open to the city’s rhythms, irreverent but tender—and clearly, if not openly, gay.—
David S. Wallace,
The New Yorker,
19 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Mother tongue.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mother%20tongue. Accessed 7 May. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share