Showing results for "lingo"

• a variation of lingoe.

lingo

¹ American  

[ling-goh] / ˈlɪŋ goʊ /

noun

• lingoes
  plural

1. the language and speech, especially the jargon, slang, or argot, of a particular field, group, or individual.

   gamblers' lingo.

2. language or speech, especially if strange or foreign.

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lingo ² American  

[ling-goh] / ˈlɪŋ goʊ /

noun

• lingoes
  plural

1. lingoe.

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lingo British  

/ ˈlɪŋɡəʊ /

noun

1. informal any foreign or unfamiliar language, jargon, etc

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• lingoes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of lingo

1650–60; apparently alteration of lingua (franca); compare Polari lingo “language”

Explanation

Lingo is a way of speaking that's shared by a particular group of people — it's their own personal slang or jargon. You might observe International Talk Like a Pirate Day by trying to speak only pirate lingo. Sometimes people refer to the language or dialect spoken in a place as its lingo: "I'd love to visit Paris, but I don't speak the lingo." You're more likely to hear lingo in the context of the words and phrases one group understands, but that outsiders might not, like computer lingo or English major lingo, or musician's lingo. Lingo shares a Latin root, lingua, or "tongue," with words like language and linguist.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lingo lingoes

Vance’s efforts to seem hip come across as forced, as if he has never met a fellow millennial and can only approximate their lingo and cadence from reading old magazine reviews of movies like “Clueless.”

From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2026

While you might know the lingo that describes what’s happening on the field, the salary-cap gain has a vocabulary all its own.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

Your client base, meanwhile, is evergreen — or, to employ corporate lingo, “sticky.”

From MarketWatch ● May 20, 2026

The “gig economy” entered the lingo in 2009, as increasing numbers of people tried to cobble two or more part-time, no-benefit “gigs” into a living wage.

From Barron's ● May 20, 2026

“Tons of things. Hard to remember all the names now, you know. Was speaking the lingo like a native by the time I left.”

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Every child suffering from warts usually passes through the stage of charms and lingoes which are popularly used to remove these disagreeable growths.

From The Mother and Her Child by William S. Sadler

That the requisite number of individuals well acquainted with some of the outlandish lingoes which had to be grappled with proved to be forthcoming, is a matter of surprise and a subject for congratulation.

From Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918 by Sir C. E. (Charles Edward) Callwell

"How do I know any such thing—that is, for a certainty—while you keep cruising amongst so many lingoes, as Tom there says?"

From Tom Cringle's Log by Michael Scott

Well, of all the lingoes I iver heard," said Flathootly, "this is the worst case yet.

From The Goddess of Atvatabar Being the history of the discovery of the interior world and conquest of Atvatabar by William Richard Bradshaw

Men may learn strange lingoes to humour their fellow-men, but how can any dog be expected to understand "Viens ici"?

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, December 12, 1917 by Various

Related Words

• argot
• jargon
• patois
• slang
• vernacular
• vocabulary