- a variation of native language.
first language
Britishnoun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“My first language is Spanish, my second is English. All my friends and everyone in my public schools grew up trying to learn English.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
His first language was Spanish, while my excuse is that I was an altar boy, well-trained by the same priest who celebrated my wedding years later.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Some were less comfortable with the possibility of false positives, since there are often autistic people, or users whose first language isn’t English, whose writing styles are stigmatized as A.I.-like.
From Slate ● Apr. 1, 2026
Martin Van Buren, the first president to be born a U.S. citizen, spoke Dutch as his first language, as did Sojourner Truth.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2026
Grandma had started speaking only in Spanish, her first language, as she became weaker, so I didn’t understand a lot of what she was saying.
From "Courage to Soar" by Simone Biles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
