lingua
Americannoun
noun
-
the technical name for tongue
-
any tongue-like structure
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of lingua
1665–75; < Latin; akin to tongue
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.
See Examples For:
Lego’s effectiveness as a visual lingua franca must be both a point of pride for The Lego Group and, at times, its bane.
From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2026
This entails programs to promote standard Chinese as the national lingua franca, instill pride in Chinese cultural heritage and exert stronger central control over regions with large ethnic-minority populations such as Tibet and Xinjiang.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
His Russian has improved in prison, where it is a lingua franca among the inmates.
From Barron's ● Jan. 30, 2026
Somalia is to introduce Swahili, the lingua franca of East Africa, to its national curriculum, the president has announced.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2025
Mice do not speak Lapine, but there is a very simple, limited lingua franca of the hedgerow and woodland.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
Reminded that technically the war was over for Russia, Kisselev confessed a "lapsus linguae."
From Time Magazine Archive
Allowing a good deal for accident, and also for the fancies of the conditores linguae Graecae, there is an element of which he is unable to give an account.
From Cratylus by Jowett, Benjamin
Afterward Mr. Colfax, who was a noted speaker, told me that whenever he made a lapsus linguae, if it amused the audience he never attempted to correct it.
From Memories of a Musical Life by Mason, William
You know I am homo unius linguae: in English, illiterate, a dunce, a ninny.
From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 5 The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, 1796-1820 by Lucas, E. V. (Edward Verrall)
Tom grinned—but seeing no one stir, "Another lapsus linguae, sir!"
From The Canadian Elocutionist by Howard, Anna Kelsey
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.
