as in languages
the stock of words, pronunciation, and grammar used by a people as their basic means of communication
he spoke in a tongue that I didn't understand
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Recent Examples of tongues
Belonging to the same group of mammals as sloths and anteaters, armadillos are voracious insectivores that eat large numbers of beetles, grubs, ants, termites, and other insects, grabbing them with their sticky tongues.
—
Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 19 May 2026
Maldonado is well-known in Miami for hosting intense services at his West Kendall church that often involve speaking in tongues and channeling the Holy Spirit.
—Lauren Costantino, Miami Herald, 19 May 2026
Money, however, doesn’t seem to be the top priority in this trilingual household, where the parents sometimes talk to each other in English and in their native tongues to Johnny.
—Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 15 May 2026
Another red carpet, another excuse to touch tongues in front of the cameras.
—Andrea Wurzburger, PEOPLE, 15 May 2026
These long, narrow flowers match the shape of the birds’ slender beaks and extendable tongues.
—Erica Browne Grivas, Better Homes & Gardens, 12 May 2026
Each pair features a mesh base supported by suede structural overlays, nylon tongues and the Gator Run’s signature toothy outsole.
—Riley Jones, Footwear News, 12 May 2026
It must be said that my writing voice in English sometimes feels stiffer nowadays, less blithely sure of itself, always fighting to keep my tongues from getting twisted.
—Literary Hub, 12 May 2026
The dragons stalk the island, flicking their huge tongues in hopes of picking up the scent of a deer, wild boar, or water buffalo — the latter two species introduced by humans — or rodents and other smaller reptiles, including baby Komodo dragons.
—Craig Stanford, Big Think, 7 May 2026
Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 19 May 2026
Maldonado is well-known in Miami for hosting intense services at his West Kendall church that often involve speaking in tongues and channeling the Holy Spirit.
—Lauren Costantino, Miami Herald, 19 May 2026
Money, however, doesn’t seem to be the top priority in this trilingual household, where the parents sometimes talk to each other in English and in their native tongues to Johnny.
—Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 15 May 2026
Another red carpet, another excuse to touch tongues in front of the cameras.
—Andrea Wurzburger, PEOPLE, 15 May 2026
These long, narrow flowers match the shape of the birds’ slender beaks and extendable tongues.
—Erica Browne Grivas, Better Homes & Gardens, 12 May 2026
Each pair features a mesh base supported by suede structural overlays, nylon tongues and the Gator Run’s signature toothy outsole.
—Riley Jones, Footwear News, 12 May 2026
It must be said that my writing voice in English sometimes feels stiffer nowadays, less blithely sure of itself, always fighting to keep my tongues from getting twisted.
—Literary Hub, 12 May 2026
The dragons stalk the island, flicking their huge tongues in hopes of picking up the scent of a deer, wild boar, or water buffalo — the latter two species introduced by humans — or rodents and other smaller reptiles, including baby Komodo dragons.
—Craig Stanford, Big Think, 7 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tongues
Noun
-
Conrad Weiser was a Pennsylvania German who had roamed the frontier for decades, learning the Indian languages and befriending Indian leaders, including some who encountered Washington in Ohio.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
20 May 2026
-
The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.—
Angelique Brenes,
PEOPLE,
20 May 2026
Noun
-
By the end of the learning unit, Burton said growth in the children could be seen as their vocabularies expanded to using words such as thermometer, blood pressure and punctured.—
Tribune News Service,
Baltimore Sun,
30 Apr. 2026
-
Shallow, misogynistic speech has seeped into the daily vocabularies of many, suggesting the toxic, anti-woman values that have long inspired such rhetoric are once again calcifying into a widespread and serious problem.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
28 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Sperm whales communicate using group-specific dialects orders of magnitude older than Sanskrit.—
Ryan Huling,
Time,
7 May 2026
-
The small cadre of community radio stations in coastal Bangladesh, using local dialects, provide an early-warning system against tsunamis, flooding, and cyclones.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
23 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
The Western musical tradition is mostly sidelined in favor of kuduro, gqom, batida, and sounds too free of familiar musical idioms to be easily categorized.—
Will Lynch,
Pitchfork,
11 May 2026
-
If the assignment is to translate something from a foreign language, there are plenty of tools and resources that can do it for you, including by recognizing and figuratively translating idioms.—
Ethan Siegel,
Big Think,
25 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Tongues.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tongues. Accessed 21 May. 2026.
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