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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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How To Use Flower Essences Flower essences are usually taken as drops under the tongue or in a glass of water, 2–4 drops, four times a day.—
Felicity Carter,
Forbes.com,
3 May 2025
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The final design is a masterclass in symbolism; from luxe red bottoms nodding to fashion culture, to a peach gold grill detail on the tongue, to a sock liner featuring Atlanta’s iconic zone map.—
Cortni Spearman,
Refinery29,
29 Apr. 2025
Noun
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The versatility in dialects in these tracks—from Moroccan to Khaleeji Arabic—reflects his fluency, not just linguistically but musically, across several continents.—
Maha ElNabawi,
Billboard,
29 Apr. 2025
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The technology differentiated among different dialects in Lebanon to gauge public reaction, helping Israel to assess if there was public pressure for a counterstrike.—
Sheera Frenkel,
New York Times,
25 Apr. 2025
Noun
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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
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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 9 May. 2025.
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