Jump to:

• lingua franca
  lingua franca

  noun

  any language that is widely used as a means of communication among speakers of other languages.
• Lingua Franca
  Lingua Franca

  noun

  a particular lingua franca spoken from the time of the Crusades to the 18th century in the ports of the Mediterranean, based on Italian, Spanish, French, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish

lingua franca

American  

[frang-kuh] / ˈfræŋ kə /

noun

plural

lingua francas, linguae francae

1. any language that is widely used as a means of communication among speakers of other languages.

2. (initial capital letter) the Italian-Provençal jargon (with elements of Spanish, French, Greek, Arabic, and Turkish) formerly widely used in eastern Mediterranean ports.

---

lingua franca ¹ British  

/ ˈlɪŋɡwə ˈfræŋkə /

noun

1. a language used for communication among people of different mother tongues

2. a hybrid language containing elements from several different languages used in this way

3. any system of communication providing mutual understanding

---

Lingua Franca ² British  

noun

1. a particular lingua franca spoken from the time of the Crusades to the 18th century in the ports of the Mediterranean, based on Italian, Spanish, French, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish

---

Etymology

Origin of lingua franca

1670–80; < Italian: literally, Frankish tongue

Example Sentences

Lingua franca is English, with liberal amounts of Danish mixed in.

From Time Magazine Archive

Related Words

• accent
• dialect
• expression
• jargon
• prose
• sound
• speech
• style
• terminology
• vocabulary
• voice
• word
• wording