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

In modern lingo, plague is shorthand for something really awful: “I caught the plague last weekend!,”

From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2026

Neither of those are on the menu, so you have to know the lingo.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

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

If you think his millennial lingo is a sign that he lacks judgment in other areas, you can tell him that “you guyses” are splitting up with him.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026

One of the first things needed when you begin the study of any subject is a little introduction to the "lingo."

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones

"Gosh, he can nearly keep still in two lingoes," thought Mr. Cassidy.

From Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up by Clarence Edward Mulford

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

"I been listenin' good, an' I hear 'em jabber, jabber, jabber all dey fanciful lingoes, but I 'ain't heern nair one say polly fronsay, an' yit I know dats de riverend book French."

From Solomon Crow's Christmas Pockets and Other Tales by Ruth McEnery Stuart

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

The young man's father was a consul; and he has half a dozen foreign lingoes stowed away in his brain.

From The Wing-and-Wing Le Feu-Follet by James Fenimore Cooper

Related Words

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