tongue

American  

[tuhng] / tʌŋ /

noun

• tongues
  plural

1. Anatomy. the usually movable organ in the floor of the mouth in humans and most vertebrates, functioning in eating, in tasting, and, in humans, in speaking.

2. Zoology. an analogous organ in invertebrate animals.

3. the tongue of an animal, as an ox, beef, or sheep, used for food, often prepared by smoking or pickling.

4. the human tongue as the organ of speech.

   No tongue must ever tell the secret.

5. the faculty or power of speech.

   a sight no tongue can describe.

6. speech or talk, especially mere glib or empty talk.

7. manner or character of speech.

   a flattering tongue.

8. the language of a particular people, region, or nation.

   the Hebrew tongue.

9. a dialect.

10. (in the Bible) a people or nation distinguished by its language.

11. tongues, speech, often incomprehensible, typically uttered during moments of religious ecstasy.

12. an object that resembles an animal's tongue in shape, position, or function.

13. a strip of leather or other material under the lacing or fastening of a shoe.

14. a piece of metal suspended inside a bell that strikes against the side producing a sound; clapper.

15. a vibrating reed or similar structure in a musical instrument, as in a clarinet, or in part of a musical instrument, as in an organ reed pipe.

16. the pole extending from a carriage or other vehicle between the animals drawing it.

17. a projecting strip along the center of the edge or end of a board, for fitting into a groove in another board.

18. a narrow strip of land extending into a body of water; cape.

19. a section of ice projecting outward from the submerged part of an iceberg.

20. Machinery. a long, narrow projection on a machine.

21. that part of a railroad switch that is shifted to direct the wheels of a locomotive or car to one or the other track of a railroad.

22. the pin of a buckle, brooch, etc.

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verb (used with object)

• tongues,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tongued,
  past participle,  past
• tonguing
  present participle

1. to articulate (tones played on a clarinet, trumpet, etc.) by strokes of the tongue.

2. Carpentry.

   1. to cut a tongue on (a board).

   2. to join or fit together by a tongue-and-groove joint.

3. to touch with the tongue.

4. to articulate or pronounce.

5. Archaic.

   1. to reproach or scold.

   2. to speak or utter.

verb (used without object)

• tongues,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tongued,
  past participle,  past
• tonguing
  present participle

1. to tongue tones played on a clarinet, trumpet, etc.

2. to talk, especially idly or foolishly; chatter; prate.

3. to project like a tongue.

idioms

1. slip of the tongue, a mistake in speaking, as an inadvertent remark.

2. hold one's tongue, to refrain from or cease speaking; keep silent.

3. find one's tongue, to regain one's powers of speech; recover one's poise.

   She wanted to say something, but couldn't find her tongue.

4. on the tip of one's / the tongue,

   1. on the verge of being uttered.

   2. unable to be recalled; barely escaping one's memory.

      The answer was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't think of it.

5. (with) tongue in cheek, ironically or mockingly; insincerely.

6. give tongue,

   1. Fox Hunting. (of a hound) to bay while following a scent.

   2. to utter one's thoughts; speak.

      He wouldn't give tongue to his suspicions.

7. lose one's tongue, to lose the power of speech, especially temporarily.

tongue British  

/ tʌŋ /

noun

1. a movable mass of muscular tissue attached to the floor of the mouth in most vertebrates. It is the organ of taste and aids the mastication and swallowing of food. In man it plays an important part in the articulation of speech sounds

2. an analogous organ in invertebrates

3. the tongue of certain animals used as food

4. a language, dialect, or idiom

   the English tongue

5. the ability to speak

   to lose one's tongue

6. a manner of speaking

   a glib tongue

7. utterance or voice (esp in the phrase give tongue )

8. (plural) See gift of tongues

9. anything which resembles a tongue in shape or function

   a tongue of flame

   a tongue of the sea

10. a promontory or spit of land

11. a flap of leather on a shoe, either for decoration or under the laces or buckles to protect the instep

12. music the reed of an oboe or similar instrument

13. the clapper of a bell

14. the harnessing pole of a horse-drawn vehicle

15. a long and narrow projection on a machine or structural part that serves as a guide for assembly or as a securing device

16. a projecting strip along an edge of a board that is made to fit a corresponding groove in the edge of another board

17. to keep quiet

18. about to come to mind

    her name was on the tip of his tongue

19. with insincere or ironical intent

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verb

1. to articulate (notes played on a wind instrument) by the process of tonguing

2. (tr) to lick, feel, or touch with the tongue

3. (tr) carpentry to provide (a board) with a tongue

4. (intr) (of a piece of land) to project into a body of water

5. obsolete (tr) to reproach; scold

tongue Scientific  

/ tŭng /

1. A muscular organ in most vertebrates that is usually attached to the bottom of the mouth. In snakes, the tongue is used as a sense organ. In frogs, the tongue is chiefly used to capture prey. In mammals, the tongue is the main organ of taste and is an important organ of digestion. In humans, the tongue is used to produce speech.

2. A similar organ in certain invertebrate animals.

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tongue More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing tongue

• bite one's tongue
• cat got someone's tongue
• hold one's tongue
• keep a civil tongue
• on the tip of one's tongue
• slip of the lip (tongue)

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Usage

Spelling tips for tongue The word tongue is so commonly misspelled as tounge that we’ve left it that way in the heading above so that this answer will be easier to find! Many people often misspell it this way (by placing the u after the o instead of after the g) because of how it is pronounced: [ tuhng ]. How to spell tongue: To remember how to spell tongue, keep in mind the phrase "My tongue felt a ton of fatigue." This indicates that the first syllable of tongue is spelled ton, and the second syllable is spelled -gue like the end of fatigue. 

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• outtongue
  verb (used with object)
• tongueless
  adjective
• tonguelike
  adjective
• untongued
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tongues
  plural

Participles

• tonguing
  present
• tongued
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• tongue
  simple
• tongues
  simple
• have tongued
  perfect
• has tongued
  perfect
• am tonguing
  progressive
• are tonguing
  progressive
• is tonguing
  progressive
• have been tonguing
  perfect progressive
• has been tonguing
  perfect progressive

Past

• tongued
  simple
• had tongued
  perfect
• was tonguing
  progressive
• were tonguing
  progressive
• had been tonguing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tongue
  simple
• will have tongued
  perfect
• will be tonguing
  progressive
• will have been tonguing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of tongue

before 900; (noun) Middle English tunge, Old English; cognate with Dutch tong, German Zunge, Old Norse tunga, Gothic tuggo; akin to Latin lingua (OL dingua ); (v.) Middle English tungen to scold, derivative of the noun

Explanation

Your tongue is the muscle in your mouth that you press against your teeth in order to speak, as well the home of your taste buds. What a useful member of the body! Tongue supposedly came from the Latin word lingua, meaning "language," but you can't hear the similarity because we pronounce it TUNG, keeping the "ue" silent. A tongue can be anything shaped like your tongue. The flap of leather under your shoelaces is called a tongue, and so is the striker inside a bell. Tongue also means language, like the German tongue, or the Cajun tongue. As a verb, tongue means "lick," as in when the dog tongues your empty plate.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tongue tongues tongued tonguing

I eat it standing, careful not to scald my tongue.

From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026

But El-Sayed, who does not lack confidence, didn’t always keep his tongue in check.

From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026

“But when you speak in your mother tongue, your body tenses up a bit because you think, ‘I understand the full emotional spectrum of what I’m talking about.’

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

A peak of pop excess, Raye's second full-length album is a 73-minute melodrama, sprinkled with golden age Hollywood glamour, show-stopping ballads, tongue twisting wordplay and genre smashing handbrake turns.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

“Now,” I say again, letting the word roll deliciously on my tongue because it has been so long since I’ve thought of now, since I haven’t been haunted by the past or dreading the future.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

Eventually, she spoke in tongues at worship services.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

By flicking their forked tongues, they collect chemical signals from the air that help them locate potential prey.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026

As a finicky eater who happens to be queer, Black and disabled, I wouldn’t touch durian, duck tongues or most of the basket items on the Food Network TV show, “Chopped.”

From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2026

In holding up a mirror to the healthcare system, showrunner R. Scott Gemmill also wanted to explore the linguistic diversity of its practitioners, allowing his actors of color to reconnect with their mother tongues.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026

Curling white snakes with flickering black tongues, birds with coal-colored wings flapping through the thick fog.

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

Folktales and fairy tales since the Middle Ages have vilified the wolf as “the Devil, red tongued, sulfur breathed, and yellow eyed.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025

Some tongued plugs of tobacco and munched on day-old Domino’s Pizza.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 13, 2019

And witnessing that kind of droopy tongued joy has a way of rubbing off, and a way of making all those dog park visits and day care bills worth it.

From The Verge ● Nov. 8, 2015

Stoll, who was so good in the first season of House of Cards, plays the villain Yellow Jacket and Michael Douglas plays an aging, sharp tongued Hank Pym.

From Forbes ● Jul. 27, 2014

For his part, Verdi spoke nothing but praise about his acid- tongued contemporary, writing that Tristan und Isolde was ‘one of the finest creations that has ever issued from a human mind’.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

In general, these stories have a similar pleasure to tonguing a burn on the roof of one’s mouth—their pain is compulsive and satisfying, cathartic, in the most traditional, dramaturgical sense of the term.

From Slate ● Mar. 24, 2020

The strike of a hammer on the calf’s exposed femur revealed marrow with no resemblance to the pasty, whitish substance that domestic dogs are so fond of tonguing out of animal bones.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 5, 2017

Anyone can restore the "speaking-swinging" style to Bach by singing it with the old flute tonguing: did'll did'll, or even the scat syllables: da ba da ba of the Swingle Singers.

From Time Magazine Archive

Sample tonguing: "Ulla, ulla, unga, unga garah, atta alia ungaraze."

From Time Magazine Archive

That she was lewd, tonguing her teeth at them, upside down and dying, that she vomited a serpent that turned to smoke when it hit the ground.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

Related Words

• dialect
• voice