tongues

noun

plural of tongue
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

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 tongues Some Republicans are no longer holding their tongues about their concerns with Collins or his campaign. — Greg Bluestein, AJC.com, 23 Sep. 2026 Mesh on the tongues ensures their breathability, and the simple off-white and black combination will be a breeze to style. — Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 17 Sep. 2026 As the bullying escalates and tensions boil over, tongues loosen, forcing the truth out into the open. — Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 18 Aug. 2026 The women in the WNBA should no more be required to hold their tongues than the men who play in the NBA. — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 12 Aug. 2026 Linguists say these various tongues have more distinction between them than the romance languages do from one another. — Popular Science Team, Popular Science, 12 Aug. 2026 In the margin, staghounds clean their paws with oiled tongues. — Literary Hub, 5 Aug. 2026 Children separated from their families were taught, sometimes violently, not to speak their native tongues, and many did not pass them on to their children. — Kadin Mills, NPR, 26 July 2026 But today’s linguistic diversity may be only the shadow of a time when humans conversed in 10 times as many tongues. — Cody Cottier, Scientific American, 23 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tongues
  1. languages
  2. vocabularies
  3. dialects
  4. idioms
Noun
  • The platform as a whole is now capable of serving tourists from hundreds of different nationalities, is available in 14 languages, and can manage over 140 types of travel documents.
    — Matthew Kayser, Miami Herald, 29 Sep. 2026
  • Speaking at the event, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni urged traditional leaders to promote local languages.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 29 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
  • Documenting many varieties is a way to not just share the language, but to illustrate how dialects of Pennsylvania Dutch differ and maybe even fill in each other’s gaps.
    — Eythana Miller, The Dial, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Italy is a unique country where every city has its own identity, architecture, traditions, flavors, dialects and even different ways of life.
    — Martino Carrera, Footwear News, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of dialects
Noun
  • There are always critics in all idioms whose goal is writing about something much bigger using a review to get there.
    — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2026
  • 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
Definition of idioms

Browse Nearby Words

tongueless
tongues
tongue-tied
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Tongues.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tongues. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of heterodox

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Oct. 2

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All